Star Breaker
by dib07
Summary: The characters enter a darker stage. Shadow undertakes his new hero title with diligent fervor. But as they continue with their lives, they swiftly find that everything can change, even the Messenger. And Robotnik has a new weapon to restore his rule.
1. Rebirth

**Dib07: **Hi all! Again! Lol! I have no idea what to say! I really don't! I am useless at this kind of thing so you are going to have to forgive me! XD Still, let's hear it for **DC111, DanceDream, RedFireGreenThunder5, StormTR, ShadowEmpress76,InAWay, Sagapaga, FullRings, Pokemonpuck, hollowgirl15, Sonazefan101, Espionage247, KhallieGurl, Kaiko luv x3, Exploder, ShadowTHFan, Storm337, Wintermuffin, GodOfStorms, No Line on the Horizon and FRICK!** XD For being there, giving me that extra wheel to keep on chugging, and in the end, to get this story out. This story is for you all; who love Sonic, love adventures, love freedom, friendship and angst and all things blue! Sorry if I have not had time to reply to all your messages! I have been a busy guy! :) LOL! I am embarrassed, so here it is. Bye!

* * *

><p><strong>The Legends of Sonic the Hedgehog<strong>

By Dib07

**Star Breaker**

**Rating: M, Due to bloody gore, violence and peril**

_The Trilogy/Quadrilogy to the Dark Empire and Panacea_

_**Star** noun_

_1 a huge mass of burning gas which is visible as a glowing point in the night sky. 2 a shape with five or six points representing a star, often used to indicate a category of excellence. 3 an outstanding person or thing in a group. 4 Astrology a planet, constellation considered to influence one's fortunes or personality; his destiny was written in the stars. Verb. 1 mark, decorate, or cover something with star-shaped marks or objects._

**Summary:**

_The characters enter a darker stage. Shadow undertakes his new hero title with diligent fervor. But as they continue with their lives, they swiftly find that everything can change, even the Messenger._

**What has gone before:**

A great war several years ago decimated clans and tribes in bloodshed. Robots, some so terrible in design and intelligence, flooded into the world with no intentions but slaughter. Dr. Ivo. Robotnik looked set to win against his old animal foes. But Sonic, thanks to the young time traveler Silver, pulled through and won against the tyrant and dubbed the war the Victory in honor of their favorable success. After the Victory, Knothole (Sonic's home) was destroyed. An Arbiter named Outcast, a high warrior, found the location of their hidden Eden and Robotnik burned the village to the ground. Not many lived. Sonic, along with his personal friends, Shadow and Knuckles, travelled day and night to the Waylands, a place in the distant mountains engraved within the Bad Lands where robot patrols were to be expected and where Arbiters bred like rabbits. Here Robotnik lived in a hideout sunken away from preying eyes where neither friend nor foe could find it. But Sonic stumbled into its entrance while they were being pursued by iron demons and Sonic fought tooth and claw against the titan, the devil of all forerunners, Robotnik himself. The Master Emerald was used in diabolical ways to enhance the human's strength, thus giving him an advantage over the hedgehog. But in the end, after paying dearly, Sonic won. The Master Emerald, abused and chained in ways it should never have been used, exploded. Thinking that Robotnik was dead, soon all his loyal followers; the Arbiters, were quelled in misery and hate. Sonic, lived, but only in pain and sickness. Knuckles and Shadow, in the teeth of winter, took him to the caves in the forlorn wastes of Mobius, hoping to cure him.

Outcast, head of the Arbiters was still at large.

The hunters, Robotnik's deadliest of creations, started to decay and tumble into tangled heaps of screws and bolts.

But a new empire had risen. One that Sonic had unfavorably overlooked.

The empire of the Arbiters.

**XxX**

_'Come the oak before the ash,_

_My lady's sure to wear her sash;_

_Come the ash before the oak,_

_My lady's sure to wear her cloak.'_

_Anon_

I was being forced down to my knees. Painfully. Inch by inch. Shadow would always be the stronger. Like a train with no carriages to hold him back. A thirsty engine always on the go, looking for new outlets. His scarlet quills of angry red lurched out from his black spines as if they were glossy with spilled blood. His teeth grinned out from his lips in wolfish disdain.

"Shades! Stop this! She's duping you!" I cried foolishly. Angrily. Because I knew he wouldn't listen, but I tried anyway, convinced some meager part of him would tap into reason. And see the light. He must think the star has turned me somehow. Made me hysterical. I can't understand why, but he doesn't trust it. He believes in the curse, even when I'm certain it doesn't exist.

"I will stop, when you stop, Sonic the hedgehog. In a world where there is no strife, war or hatred, there is no need for dumb foolish creatures like you. I get it; you want this. You want conflict. You wish to pillage the world with some kind of danger to thrill yourself with, and I won't have it anymore. I am the hero now. I stop villains like you!"

I pushed upwards, star flashing. However he was like grinding machinery. And he shoved me back. The muscles all along my spine and legs burned hotly. There would be no way past him. Not yet.

"Shadow, don't become the monster she wanted you to be! You saved me!"

Shadow motioned forwards, a true, nefarious predator. His left fist eased away from my hand and instead wrested his fingers in my fur, lifting me up from the floor. The tips of my sneakers scuffed at the ground, trying to find purchase that wasn't there. Shadow's eyes grinned, even when his lips remained straight and sour.

"How does it feel to be the bad guy for once? Not fun is it? This is what happens when saviors get too wrapped up in themselves. Think they're mighty. Golden. Like angels."

"You seriously need therapy." I spoke despite the pain of his hold. I wanted to kick him in the nuts. Had to get loose. Had to find her. But I also didn't want a nice set of broken bones. And Shadow's grip was not giving.

"I don't want to kill you. I never will, I just have to disable you until she's made the world hers. Or… you can surrender. Bow to her and it'll all be over. Peace for everyone and everything."

I gazed down at Shadow, feeling the sweat pour down my fur. My cheeks warm with tears that I wasn't even aware I was producing.

I had to ask myself how on Mobius we had got here. How this all started. And why. Why did it even start to end this way?

I begged my memory to remember. To think back, to shore something up – something better for Shadow to believe in. And to believe in me.

I know what I have to do. And I have to do it fast. Just how I like it. It's my last throw at setting it all right. And maybe Shadow knows that. Knows to stop me from going all kamikaze.

Heck, I've been on borrowed time, so this sacrifice will be effortless.

So this is how it'll end. There'll be no one to save me.

But this is how it goes.

I am no longer the hero in this day and age.

I am...the Messenger…

I am the Star Breaker.

**XXX**

"Here, here!" The old rat slammed his iron hammer down on the hub of his desk, causing the wood to split and chip down the very centre. "Hush, all of you! You sound like a herd of lohngers."

The assembly standing round him stopped immediately and the busy air was grinded into a pasty silence. The birds stood on a wooden ledge above the old Lord, most of them were eagles with black or white feathers. Below were all sorts of beasts, and all were tattooed with the Eggman logo of the great Dr. Ivo. Robotnik.

"As I was saying," spoke the old rat as he nudged his glasses up a little higher on his nose, "we remain safe here, I grant you this reassurance, so long as none of you blurts out our empire like the heathen he is! Last samhein a hare was executed for panicking and nearly alerting the freedom fighters of our home!"

A few of the weasels in front nodded amongst themselves.

"And as a penalty for it, all the hares here were executed." The rat licked his lips and positioned himself a little on his silk covered chair. He had to sit on two cushions to reach the bridge of the desk. "Now, as you all are aware, we have an advantage. No one thinks to find us here, and the lohngers think that we can organize nothing! That we fight against ourselves! That we can plan nothing without some mutiny in our claws! No! We prove them wrong and they are the ones that know nothing! I see it in your eyes," he continued thickly, excitably as his tired eyes observed them warmly, "I see it in your hearts! But how do we do it? How do we, my friends, do away with the enemy and win what Robotnik should have?"

A porcupine from the second row rose his hand up. He wore a silken blue scarf and fine gloves made from a rare metal, "sir, I heard Sonic was dead. With him out the way, surely we are wasting time here when we can be out there, destroying all the filth clogging the veins of Mobius?"

The rat ran a claw under his nose as if he were about to sneeze. "Sonic is not dead. Our scouts are everywhere, Longtooth. They reported him a month ago, in the south. No, he is not dead. He lives like the devil. But we will not attack him. Not yet. I have other plans and, if done hastily, will not succeed. My minions, we will see the light. Robotnik has given us a glorious, divine chance to take control and the abysmal critters will pay for their crimes! We will show them heaven! We will show them the light! We will slaughter every living thing if we must until they follow us to great salvation!" He thrust his old arm up and groped his claws outward in a salute of the Arbiters. "Hail King Fire! Hail the long reign of the Arbiters! Hail the Overlanders!"

"Hail!" Resounded the others all round him in a flourishing gait of pride, "hail kings of rage and war! Hail Uhjacj, Lord of all! Hail all Men!"

The rat slipped off his chair and descended the stone steps that were worn with time. The large chamber echoed with dire cries. The Arbiters raised their spears, machetes, guns. They were one. They didn't need Robotnik. The freedom fighters were almost all defeated. Sonic's home and base of operations was shattered. The emeralds were being hunted. They had three already. Everything was going according to plan. They'd convert the world into a better place. A place the forerunners had wanted all along.

And this time, not even Sonic could stop them.

**Chapter 1: Echoes of the Past**

_'The cuckoo is a merry bird,_

_He sings as he flies,_

_He brings us glad tidings_

_And tells us no lies.'_

_Trad, The Cuckoo_

_'Spirit Acorn.'_

'He was taken too quickly from us, may he always live on in our hearts.'

The embossment on the grave marker read in the husky amber colors of a still-very young spring. Sonic sat and stared at the individual letters as they stood out like soldiers upon vehement shadow on the generic stone gray of his son's tome. The only son he'd ever have. And so he sat in lost silence, eyes hazily locked on the letters as if they were lying to him. As if what they declared was anything but the truth. But he knew in his heart that there was no lie. A dry rustle of wind tried to snatch at the bouquet of wild flowers he held in his cold hands. He reacted by clutching the green forest of stems ever tighter. Spring would come, filling the world with new color and life. Then summer would sweep on by like a matron held tight with motherly love. Then autumn…and his son would never see any of it. At all. He knew, the logical part of him knew, that grieving over a stillborn wasn't the same as grieving for someone who had at least lived some life. But in his heart he knew that was wrong too. He was weeping for a life he could never see or hold. Weeping for a life he would never get to know or understand. For awhile he was able to hold strong around company. To show tears was not his thing. For the longest time before his deliberating condition; he had been the defender, the warrior, the steel mace that made any and all danger leap back. And to reveal his inner emotions around them did not feel altogether correct. So here he sat on his heavy spring morning clutching a bouquet of wildflowers and staring wordlessly at his son's name stenciled coldly into stone. And so the sorrow had ravaged him unawares, dissolving his pride and shredding away his iron defenses.

He was truly lost from reality as if he had departed through some invisible barrier and entered something cold, distant and as unreachable as the stars. He did not know how alone he was until a shadow loomed suddenly to the left of his watery vision. His hand clenched the flower stems so hard he felt a few of them snap.

"Blue?" Knuckles' voice was silk. "Hey, hey! What are you doing out here alone?" Sonic did not move to look at him or even acknowledge him. He had no energy in which to do it. Then the echidna's wide, robust hands swamped his tiny shoulder. He took in the pallid quiet with serene understanding, and did not challenge Sonic's decision. But he did not like his eyes. The lustful forest emerald that so strongly grew into a burning fire in Sonic's eyes had never returned since his terrible accident in the Wayland mountains. Yet even so, a new ghostly, glazed appeal had disquietly filled them, making Sonic's eyes look crazed and half-there. He looked like a wretched mammal that had escaped from the bedlam of hell.

"I am so selfish." Sonic croaked at last, the tears glistening along the bottom of his eyes like little gems. His dry coughs were so irritating. They jarred his chest and made his watery vision wobble ungracefully.

"Why? Why do you say that?" Knuckles returned with much patience. They had all learned a little patience through the white. They had all learned something different. They had all looked into the darkness behind the mirror of life and did not like what they saw there. He had heard through Amy and Sally how bitter and hounding Shadow's nightmares were. Knuckles was much more secretive of his personal life and didn't reveal his nighttime dreams, but Sonic saw the naked terror on Red's face sometimes, and understood.

"I…I wanted to live…"

"Hey now…"

"There is no one to blame but me."

"Don't you dare think like that." His voice had grown hotter with love and bold inner strength, but his soft voice never rose above a torpid whisper. "This wasn't your fault. If you want someone to blame…blame Robotnik. Blame the wars. Blame the overlanders."

"I spoke to Dowa last night. I prayed. And I got no answer. I've never spoken to him before; there's always been no need. I had nothing to lose, right? But…I got no answer."

He felt Knuckles rubbing his shoulder in contrite circles. He wasn't wearing his jumper today, so the fingers spreading over his fur felt unusually close. He knew Sally would stone him dead for not wearing his clothes, even though he was so thin he floated in them anyway. Today however, in the thin light; he could not feel the damp chill breathing over the grass. Grief had a way of locking him tightly away from warmth; from feeling and from hunger. He may as well be in a box himself.

"He did answer." Knuckles said with painful shyness. "He always has. He gave Tails a protector and brother when no one else would have him. Robotnik lost and Mobius was spared from his greed. These are but tiny examples of our lives. Who knows why a single flower grows in a desert? Sometimes we are not meant to know." He abruptly ended his train of words when he saw Amy Rose walk hesitantly up the grassy hill towards them, her face shy and hesitant. Her hands were folded against her chest like she always did when she felt nervous and out of place. She stopped about halfway up the hill some six yards from them. Her wooly dress dancing and wavering between her ankles like something wild.

Knuckles sighed gently, feeling the hard ridges of bone through Sonic's papery skin and pallid fur. Have you thought about adopting?; was the question set into his tongue. But he clamped silently down on it and swallowed the thought away like a pill. It was too soon to ask; perhaps. The pain was still stiff, new and cutting. Sonic might even take offensive at the idea of adopting a child. At least at the moment. "Look behind you." Sonic did not. His eyes torpidly swung down towards the clutch of flowers. Knuckles continued abstractly, as though in the dangers of offending. "Tails is waiting for you down the verge amongst the trees." A dry slither of some old strength returned and Sonic did turn round then. He saw Tails indeed; his slim profile swimming in tree shadow near the bottom dip of the hill. He saw Amy too, standing only five yards away. She looked ill. Ill with worry and anguish. He smiled at her even if the attempt even felt crooked on his face; Dowa knows what the smile looked like to her. However she returned a faint glimmer of a smile herself; not the usual shark-like proportions she revealed this time. She had always been there by Sally's side like a younger sister. She had been the one knitting the baby clothes along with the princess. And now that the baby clothes had all been burnt, she had taken to knitting silk or wool clothes for Sonic. The invalid. Knuckles' voice, ever strong, firm yet gentle; made him jerk, "Jehahribrah knows how long Tails has been waiting for you. Go to him. And please put some clothes on."

Sonic laid the bouquet down by the unfeeling stone marker, watching his star's light reflect briefly off his pale bare hand as he did so. A sprinkling of hate surfaced in his mind against its placid, alien light. Then it went just as quick, leaving him with confused sadness and lonesome ponderings. "Okay, Red. Okay."

"Are you all right?"

"Ya, ya, I'm fine. Really."

Knuckles touched his cheek very gently. "Smile, Blue! What we did wasn't right, but it wasn't wrong either. Spirit has gone someplace else to live some other day. Live for him."

Sonic nodded; smiled and sighed. He closed his eyes and a twinkling trio of bright tears raced down his alabaster cheeks. Then he opened them again; eyes still dull but no longer chastened and bitter. "I shall. See you later, Red." He left the grave and passed Amy on the way down the soft, sloping grade that ran down into the village. He nodded at her too, trying to pass up a genuine smile this time.

"You want…to come over my place for some tea?" She asked, her eyes pleading almost. She saw pain and she wanted to help in any way she could. It was weird. He saw pain too; and wanted nothing but to fix it. Heal it. Soothe that wound. But he had no idea how to even begin helping his own pain. He didn't know how.

"Sure." He replied as strongly as he could; to mask his croaky voice and lift his shoulders to retake his casual attitude. It made him foolish, however he didn't much care. "Maybe tomorrow? Unless you wanna come over to Tails' workshop later and help make apple-pie?"

"That would be wonderful!" Amy returned, the strain on her face easing a little. "Got enough apples?"

"I guess." She followed him down and he rejoined Tails who didn't try to hide or masquerade his smile when he saw him. He came over and gave him a big soppy hug before passing him his crutch.

"You feel a bit better, Sonic?"

"Yeah, I do." He said weakly after a few loose coughs. He tried to mean it. He did feel better. He had always fought against time, however now it was time's duty to help soften the hurt. He would be allies with it, for awhile. He clutched Tails' hand and positioned the crutch under his other armpit. It was time to go home.

XxX

Some two months later, the afternoon on a spring day was a bit warmer and a whole lot brighter. Dark clouds had grumbled in muted cadence to the north before passing without notice. More flowers, daisies, marigolds and dandelions had opened up in the village like spring blessings. The daffodils spilled thickly in verges, fields and woodland like little gold faces.

"You need help?" Tails came rushing over, seeing all the heavy machinery being moved out as the gentle afternoon light shone drunkenly on a black and red hedgehog rolling out massive, cumbersome equipment from Sally's cottage.

Sonic looked up, smiling nimbly. "Hiya pal. Shadow's got this all covered. No worries."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I'm leaving him to do it all actually; I just helped roll it out."

"Lazy!" Shadow shouted as he rolled the massive ECG machine across the terse grass. His spoken retort was not spoken in malice. Rather he had jabbered it in playful mocking.

"I just don't like touching it! How does that class me as lazy?" Sonic shook his head; his comeback falling on air as Shadow warped away with the machine. Back to its home. The Ark.

"You ever been in the Ark?" The kitson asked.

"Nope. Don't think I'd like it. Too overlandish fer me. Shadow likes his metal corridors, the machines. I'm just happy with an oak tree! Though I must say… he is living wild very well. He's never gone back to living up there in Mobius' orbit." This much was true. Shadow had remained with them very happily and though he sourly complained about spiders, frogs and straw, he was doing very well.

Tails admired the rolling tracks left by the machinery imbedded neatly in the grass. Faux Forest was in the process of having stone paths made, but most work was devoted to food and more building material for houses, and the wall around their growing town. Sonic hadn't seen their new town for months, and strolled casually through the houses and shops with careful, limping steps. It had taken him four months to build up some muscles again and put on tedious weight. All thanks to the bright, powerful star in the centre of his sternum. There were no other marks, and the incision scarring from the surgery was hidden behind a fresh coat of fur. The star however, could always be seen, even in the most strident of daylight.

"I've got a place of my own now, lil'buddy."

"You're moving out?" Tails followed in step with his brother, "and why the move of equipment? You still have heart fa…"

"I know what I have! I may not be cured, Tails, but I do feel one hundred and ninety two percent! And I kinda feel bad about Sal. I need a place of my own. I can't be with her for a while. It bites."

"Why do you insist on blaming yourself? It wasn't your fault!" Tails' face had foiled into one of concrete anger. He was angry at Sonic for slamming the blame on himself. Though Tails was right in a sense, Sonic still felt hugely responsible for Sally's miscarriage, and hadn't spent much time with her since his growing independency.

Knuckles had left two months ago to finally gather the remnants of the befallen Master Emerald. It was good that things were falling back into routine. The departure had been heartfelt and tender. Sonic hadn't wanted the brave echidna to leave, but Knuckles expressed how important his duty to the Master Emerald was. And there was something else too. The red guardian had been sad for a long time, even during Sonic's tender, slow recovery. And the hedgehog and kitson knew why. The nightmares.

Knuckles was reluctant to confess what was bothering him, and would pass all questions off with a casual shrug until Sonic pestered and pestered. (The hedgehog was a hard one to deny). Then Knuckles broke out the reason like something dark seeping out from an egg. "I keep having bad, bad dreams, Blue. They reoccur over and over. I see snow. I see White Haven. And we're stuck there. They just… haunt me." He wouldn't admit anymore. Not him; the hardened echidna. Yet he looked troubled and upset. Eyes a dark, secretive shade of rue. So he hoped that returning to Angel Island would erase the dreams, and lessen the pain from the past. So the echidna had hugged a thin Sonic one fine, bright afternoon. He had food packed for the journey ahead. And the red guardian had shed a tear at the thought of departure. Tails noticed how much they had all changed, Sonic especially, as he would soon find out later; for better or worse.

"I love ya, Blue. You had many close-calls those winter months. Don't be afraid to open up if you suddenly feel strange or unwell." There was a pause. A breath of spring air. The sun strengthened their shadows until they looked straight and impossibly narrow like black paint etched hard and raw into the grass. "I remember when we first met when we were young! We were always fighting!"

"Ah, such violence!" But his voice was already cracking.

"Don't lose that smile, Blue. Ever."

Knuckles soon left, regret marking his movements. He looked like an echidna ready to explore the world anew and looking for fresh hope and life from a horrid past. Tails would never forget how haunted he looked as he slowly, tiredly walked away. Sonic stood, watching him go for a long time. He took Tails by the hand and clenched it tight. When their shadows got taller still, and the wind turned chilly, Sonic finally headed for home, not saying a word. Tails found pain in the unsaid silence.

XxX

Still convalescing, Sonic had explored little of the wider world. It was early spring. A season for new opportunities. Life. Adventure. Eggman's unquestionable defeat meant less patrols along the Badlands and west and east coasts. It was the cowardly pirates of the animal world however that kept them on their toes. The Arbiters with their stately overlander methods, were using mantraps. And even agile animals had to be careful when they twirled through forests and woodland. One bite from the trap often broke legs, and the fact that animals had taken up this barbaric art from the overlanders was disgusting.

At least Faux Forest was doing okay. Trade was being considered again. Houses reinforced. A watering well was installed, and several big windmills to provide power. Even Tails had his own place finally built during late winter, complete with a small workshop that was bound to grow in time. Both in inventions and size.

When Sally had taken Sonic round in the wheelchair a few weeks ago after a brief relapse battling a life-threatening fever, she guided him around the town, updating him on any news and reinstalling facts in his memory that had been short ever since the surgery to remove the metal shard all that time ago. Some things he found impossible to remember. But what he was really bemused at was that Sally was having a castle built right in the middle of town. Castle Acorn. During the winter they drew up plans and commenced building as soon as the days started getting longer again.

New Knothole was coming on so well. And he was here to see it.

"I think you should still give the ProtectorSB a go." Tails added in the mellow sunshine as he and his brother took a gentle stroll now that Shadow had left with the last of the Ark equipment, "I worked hard on it all winter. I tested it out using Shadow's computers. He gave me one; a big overlander computer. It's in my workshop, wanna see?"

"Your workshop is on the other side of the village, little buddy. I can't walk that far today. I'm beat!"

"I can get the crutch or the wheelcha…"

Sonic pounced into him like something rabid and unstoppable. With barely any effort he had Tails on the dewy grass on his back, Sonic on top lacing his body with tickles. The young kitson laughed and screamed.

"Stop it! Okay, okay! I'm sorry!"

"You say heart failure or wheelchair or Protector-up-my-ass one more time and I will do this and more!"

"Okay! OKAY! Sonic… Sonic you're killing me! Dowa!"

The hedgehog's dainty fingers left his brother's fur with a mild smile enveloping his face. The candid day was sweet and homely. The flies buzzed in the golden light of the morning. A grasshopper jumped when Tails clumsily tried to get back to his feet. Ever since Sonic had made his return, the two brothers had become inseparable. True, they were that way at the start of their bond, but now Tails would not leave Sonic's side. For anything. The only time Sonic was allowed to have any privacy was when he was using the restroom. And even that was a push.

At the end of Sonic's routinely exercise duration, he came full circle and decided to rest outside his new cottage, almost thirty yards from Sally's house. His was set apart from all the others, just how he liked it as it was more private. The sunlight gleamed upon the polished windows in glaring fury and the hemlock grew thick and lush around the hem of the front door. Carved into the wood on the door was the scrawl; Maurice.

Placing his rump in the sweltering grass, he relaxed against the wall of his home. Tails readily joined him and sat very closely on his right side. "Sally hasn't given this town a name yet." The fox muttered as if in reverie, or simply to fill in the relaxing silence nestling between them. "I thought she would have by now. So long as she doesn't call it Knothole two or something."

"She's had a lot on her mind. The counsel is still gathering members, and then I'm sure they'll help her decide to bless our town with a new name." He watched the kitson's eyes at a discreet glance. His blue pupils always fell on his star in quiet, bemused wonder. It made Sonic a tad uncomfortable, but he knew well enough not to say anything.

The star, witchcraft, pure magic, a hallucination, whatever it was, was a symbol of his new energy, the life gifted by draconia that would remain in his system. Knuckles had alluded on its repercussions. And the price of having it. However, the cons would always outweigh the pros. For he was alive. And that was what mattered. Even if the spell… was just an illusion.

Shadow had offered to take Sonic to the Ark for some 'simple tests,' of which he exaggerated on its 'simplicity.' The blue hedgehog naturally refused. He wasn't comfortable on the whole idea of going into the Ark just yet, and he was duly sensitive to air temperature, let alone what a warp would do to him. So Shadow generously brought the equipment down instead and they did the tests in the privacy of Shadow's home.

"Just a little blood sample I need from you." Shadow had drawn out a small syringe, but it was enough to shore up all the memories Sonic had tried miserably to forget.

"Why do you need a blood sample from me?"

Shadow heard the stubborn fear toning his voice and went about explaining it logically. "A blood sample tells me if you have any chemical imbalances like an iron deficiency. It'll tell me what hormones you have, or if there are any toxins in your blood like something called septicemia. It'll give me clear readings of your cholesterol levels and your white blood cell count. Even the oxygen levels in your red cells."

"That's a lot from a blood sample." He watched Shadow roll his eyes. "Look, just this one prick, okay? Promise me you'll do no more. I mean it."

"No more. I promise."

The sample was taken from his arm. Shadow had wanted to do it closer to the star; Sonic could see the disappointment of not being able to do quite what he wanted in Shadow's eyes, but he didn't give his dark elder the opportunity.

Due to Shadow's fast computers, the results came back clear and sharp. The data revealed (not surprisingly) that Sonic's testosterone was at an all-time low and that he had unusual readings of epinephrine (stress hormones. What was even more alarming were the shocking levels of draconia in his system. Draconia was dragon blood cells; live ones that mingled with Sonic's normal blood cells. Though they seemed to be doing nothing harmful to the hedgehog's body, it was still like finding snake blood in the body of a mouse. It didn't make much sense, and Shadow wanted to study it further and take more blood samples, but Sonic refused outright and the matter on that subject was dropped. Shadow had at least one sample to pour over. So after that little argument, Shadow did an ultrasound scan against Sonic's lower back to further learn the progress of his kidneys. They were recovering too; albeit the progress was remarkably slow.

"I think the star is making draconia cells. New ones. On a regular basis, like bone marrow replacing red blood cells." Shadow observed. "Still, that's enough testing for one day." He pulled off his surgical gloves with savage strokes and dumped them into the wastepaper basket next to his oak desk. "Are you still taking your digoxin and diuretic medication?"

"Yes." Sonic touched the back of the leather chair Shadow usually sat in as he read books or notes. Leather he seldom saw. Arbiters had leather. "Even if it's pointless taking them."

"Just because it's stopped hurting, doesn't mean you should pull your burnt hand away from cold water so soon." Shadow returned, sounding wise in his logical coldness. "Any problems you've been having? Any pain? Those coughs still bothering you?"

"Yeah, but no pain. Honest. I've been getting indigestion though."

"Ah huh. Drink water or tons of juice. That'll help…"

"Urm…" He took his leave from the leather chair and stood close to the only window in Shadow's study. Outside he could see dark green meadows, someone's garden and one of the village's mills laboriously rotating its wooden sails in the wind. "I keep having fevers."

"Yes, every month." Shadow replied firmly.

"Yes. How did you know?"

Shadow did not tell him about the draconia going toxic at every full moon. There was no need to cause alarm and the information was on a strict need-to-know basis. Shadow at the time didn't understand this toxic period, and so long as Sonic survived it every month, there was time to research; study and possibly prevent. But there would be one day when not everything would be as simple.

"I just…" Shadow had paused, looking slightly embarrassed. "I've noticed how regular these fevers have been occurring myself. I am looking into it."

And that was quite some time ago now. Shadow, being the most sensitive on his wellbeing, only came near him for business or for questions. Recently he had kept three feet away from Sonic at all times as if he had an invisible circle wrapped around him, acting as a rudimentary barrier that could not be crossed. Because he still knew…and still heard how ill he was inside.

Sometimes the dark elder tried to reinforce his gruff, indifferent attitude that so governed his nature. When Sonic started wearing attire to keep warm, Shadow was there to offer his remarks. "Look at that," he would say with a calm, dark charm, "a hedgehog wearing clothes like an overlander!"

Sonic had glanced over at him. He had decided to wear a red jacket that day, something knitted by Amy. Shadow had his arms folded. Face twisted into a curt, flippant smile which instead came out looking like he had just bitten into a sour orange. "Jealous?" Sonic offered back, not the least bit insulted. Shadow would have to try a lot harder than that to get him offended. "You can burrow my vest if you like. It's a bit close against my fur."

Shadow had rolled his eyes, and no more was said. He tried to be playful, Sonic reasoned about him, only because he wanted things to go back to normal too. Then, like an autumn sky, Shadow too became different and that would be revealed in time.

"So, what will you do when you get better?" Tails asked, ever eager to sniff out the next adventure with his brother. To run free with him, and enjoy the rich, if turbulent experiences they were bound to endure. The sunlight had moved, and was dappling Sonic's cottage wall in gold as they sat in the grass, relaxing.

"Find Robotnik." He muttered suddenly, enjoying the look Tails gave him. There was a pleasurable mix of astonishment, quickly followed by sturdy confusion. His young brother's ears snapped back as if his tails had just been yanked.

"Find… Robotnik? But he's dead!"

"He isn't. He's alive. I see him in my dreams. And besides that, I know he's out there, bud. He's out there, maybe recovering like I am. It's only been seven months since the Wayland explosion. He's had time to get back on his feet. And I'll find him."

"Why?" His ears remained down, eyes a solemn expression of his inner self. "After what he's done to you? Only to risk yourself again? Even if he is alive, I'm sure he'd be too wounded to do much, least of all world-wide conquest. Sonic..brother…he's dead!"

Sonic gave him a soft, nonplussed shrug only to point expressively to his bright, sparkling life-giver. "Well, either way, this blue psycho has to wait to heal up and gather his full strength first! Which will take time. I'm not going after Eggman yet…if I can help it. Though I'd love to know where he is. I need to ask Shadow if he can spy on the world from the Ark, and perhaps find out via a satellite or something, ya know?"

"Or Outcast."

"Oh him? The weasel? Hmm, maybe."

There came a little girly cry that amounted to a long shout stretching across the air like glass. Sonic's spines reflexively pricked and a twinge of rueful panic nettled his neck. He looked up sharply, sitting straight, ears keenly angled forwards. Amy came racing towards him, holding up her hand in an unnecessary wave. She didn't look very happy.

With a final sprint, she came to a slowing jog until she was standing before them, sweating a little. The fine, warm spring morning did wonders for Sonic's recovery, but made the healthier animals sweat uncomfortably. "There you are! I thought you were at Sally's!" She panted.

"I move about a lot." Sonic gave her a wink, relaxing back again, body slumping into the wall.

"There's grave news from the north! I wanted to tell the princess, but she was busy with the council." She barely gave herself time to breathe, "And I didn't want to displease her. She's been acting out of sorts lately, I don't know why!" Sonic gestured with his finger by circling the air with it, thus encouraging her to spill the beans. Getting the idea, she nodded and added, "the Arbiters have been attacking. Just hours ago a whole family of otters was slaughtered, down by Escot River. They were ambushed, Sonic! And a couple of days ago, a stag was found mauled to death near here, but I don't know if you had heard about that. Either they are testing our defenses or they know where we are. You've got to do something!"

Sonic leant away from the brick wall, his face shadowed in something akin to disappointment. His star flashed red so discreetly that no one noticed it.

Amy continued, "they aren't powerless without Robotnik as their messiah. They are growing stronger!" Her voice burned with adamant conviction, "you need to find them!"

"They have many tribes. Which tribe or clan was it that ambushed the otters?"

"I don't know! But the tracks and…and the blood is still there!"

Amy continued spilling out the profanity of the Arbiters. The unchecked deaths. The massacres going on in the hills, the poorer towns, the untamed woods. However, as Sonic looked up at her, his chest tickling with coughs, all he could think of was Eggman.

What if he's building a weapon right now?

What if he's watching me? Somehow? Somewhere?

What if he's planning something new? What if… what if he's on his way here right now?

Where is he? Where is he?

"…and nobody is doing anything!" Amy ended on her tangent, noticing the lost look in Sonic's daydreaming eyes. "Are you even listening? They're dead, Sonic! Dead! Do you hear me?"

"Dowa above, Amy!" Tails said in a firm, unkind manner, "Sonic's not very well and you know that! You think he can just sprint off and chase away the bad guys? Tell Shadow!"

Her head moved slightly, allowing a stream of unchecked sunlight to glance off her green hair band. He thought he saw snowflakes glimmer there, like flittering feathers. A patterned murmur of cold, staunched pain. He was fixated by them – falling down. Filling the raw sky with their angry, deathful blessings. White cold of bottomless fever.

He jumped and knocked himself into the brick wall. Tails stood up, equally surprised and jilted by his reaction. Barely able to open his mouth to defuse Sonic's alarm, Shadow warped in amongst them like a teleported demon. Amy screamed and fell back, taken in by the shock of black and red fur that landed into her vision like a waltzing nightmare in the sunlight.

Fully aware of himself, Shadow stepped back, giving plenty of room between himself and Sonic. "There, all done. My machines are fucking back home, and if you ever, ever want me to bring them back down again, I'll slash your throat open."

"As long as you don't botch it!" Sonic returned wearily. He looked wildly for snow but saw only the brazen sun winking down. The ushering clouds sleeping overhead. And Shadow's upset eyes of tangled red.

"What did you say?" He asked shockingly; as if he had just committed a great wrong. "Sonic?" His voice sounded clogged. Untold sadness seemed to leap up across his face and Sonic didn't like what he saw there.

"Hello!" Amy said, picking herself up, looking outraged.

"It's okay, Amy!" The kitson returned to cool her temper, "we'll sort this out. Sonic can't walk that far, so we'll use my plane. Just let me get it ready first, and we'll figure it out from there. I know it's serious, so we'll do what we can."

The blue blur smiled and nodded at his brother covetously when their eyes met. Finally, an adventure indeed…with a plane. With Shadow looking on like a drenched puppy with no owner, Sonic murmured thoughtfully, "the Arbiters have many hideouts. They burrow and weed themselves into anywhere like rabbits and create these…these long maze-like labyrinths that only they know how to navigate."

"We are no closer to finding them than from when we first started." Tails agreed with a crestfallen sigh.

Sonic smirked suddenly, a stroke of inspiration gleaming as bright as the star on his sternum. "Hey, I think I have an idea!"

"Sonic," Shadow warned coolly, gathering his resignation for just this one reply, "I hate your ideas."

"You'll love this one!"

The black hedgehog cocked his head to one side. His hands subconsciously curling into worried fists.

"What is it?" Tails, ever eager like his brother, leaned forwards as if ready to receive the secret about life itself.

* * *

><p><strong>Dib07;<strong> Sorry for this long, long, LONG chapter! Heh! It just kinda...poured out of me at the time! XD I apologize! XD


	2. The Arbiter Secret

**Dib07**: Lol, how long has it been? Months? Sorry about the HUGE lateness and I won't be surprised if no one is reading this anymore. I don't blame you for giving up on me, lol. I have got two complaints about Star Breaker however, and this did put me off uploading it, mainly involving the** M** rating. A lot of what happens in Star Breaker is okay for under 16's to read fine, but things will get tougher. I write adult Sonic stories only, which involves dark peril, angst and troublesome scenes. I **don't **rate **M** for sexual situations and in Star Breaker there is none. Yes there is romance but nothing dirty. Okay, now that that is cleared up, let's get on. This chapter is dedicated to Sonazefan101 and pokemonpuck. Pokemonpuck you are incredible. Sorry for the delay! :( Read and enjoy my friend!

**Sonikkuu: **Hi there! Thanks so much! Yeah, I try and keep them all in character as best I can while still making them unique to the functions that have happened in the storyline and so on, and yes there is a much bigger cast this time round with much more happening and a real adventure! Lol oh yes! Thanks for the review, hope you are still around to read the next little bit, though I do take my sweet time!

XXXX

**Chapter 2: The Arbiter Secret: Project Elva**

'_The day is done, and the darkness_

_Falls from the wings of Night,_

_As a feather is wafted downward_

_From an eagle in his flight.'_

_Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – The Day is Done_

_xxxxxxx  
><em>

The young girl spilled out of her cryochamber and onto a cold tiled floor. Pink liquid ran down her soft white limbs and golden hair like slime. She wanted to cry out, but her voice froze in her throat. So she sat, trembling on all fours and blinked a few times against the sticky web of cooling slime. Her blue eyes focused after a few tries as she started to fumble a little on the hard flooring. Her long fingernails sought warmth when there was none.

She didn't know where she was or what was happening, but she did know that before her were creatures. Countless dozens of them were surrounding her on all sides and she felt very afraid. Her pale white body trembled before them.

All these beasts were dressed in fine cerise silken scarves, sashes and cloaks. And all wore silver armor that entailed riches only kings could imagine. A larger creature, wearing all that and a bejeweled crown with a gem on his head, bowed briefly to her and smiled, though she saw only a grin of contempt. He waved his arm out in a gesture she could not read and he said loud and clear, "madam! Daughter of our honored and mighty Messiah! We bow before you as your servants of the greater good."

"The greater good!" Echoed the humble gathering of animals around her.

"I," continued the creature, "am Lord Rathuier the second! I am Emperor of the Arbiters and loyal advisor to all your teachings!" At once, making her jump, all the animals bowed as one and a stony silence breathed into the room like death itself. She tried to sit up. Her arms were too weak. Her body shivered against the sterile coldness of the chamber. She was frightened. She understood them, yet she couldn't speak. She hadn't the strength.

Lord Rathuier seemed to understand her as she stared at them with her pale blue eyes. He stepped forward and at once the others rose from their humble submission.

"You are human." The beast whispered to her. His words were true and she could hear no lies in them. "You weren't supposed to be activated for another five years, dear one. But your late father, Lord and God Robotnik has sadly passed away. And now you must take the throne. Mobius is rightfully yours, my queen. And so it shall be. But first we will get you cleaned up, and you shall rest and learn until you are ready."

She peered up at him with questioning eyes. Her lips tried to form words she wasn't capable of making.

"You are Elva." Lord Rathuier spoke gently, "Elva Venus Robotnik. You are the last. But you will rest now and then soon - soon my dear, we will rule _all_."

XXX

The plane lifted into the air like a bird, its metal grinning against the august daylight, the rotors working thirstily as the engine fed its querulous need. The red paint lifted into a dappled scarlet as clouds licked its underbelly.

With the biplane being only a two-seater, Shadow followed them from below, happily skating at high-speeds through the uncharted undergrowth as they left Faux Forest behind. Shadow had strangely wanted to come along with them. Sonic could not place why, and so left the reason alone.

He himself was safely tucked in the passenger seat behind Tails, wrapped up in a fur coat and scarf to keep the cold off him. The trifling nag to run had grown stronger over the past few weeks, but attempting it would only bring him down. Every so often he caught sight of Shadow running beneath them when the trees let up to allow a view straight down to the naked ground. He wished he could be running directly beside him.

Evident to Tails' hard work while he had been away during the winter, the kitson had melted and shaped the glass to form a sturdy windshield over passenger and cockpit that could be lifted off when needed. This also allowed them to talk without their words being blown away by the wind.

"I think you should let Sally handle this." Tails was saying as he thumbed a control and kept the plane tilted at a slight axis as Shadow turned north-east. The Escot River was less than ten miles away as the plane ate up the distance.

"Tails, I thought you wanted adventure? You haven't left the forest since… since my vacation."

Tails rolled his eyes. "I know… it's just… I thought an adventure in another month. Besides, this is serious. Arbiters come in their hundreds. I wouldn't really call it an adventure."

"You can't pick and choose your endeavors, buddy. If we could, we'd all be living like kings."

"I know. I know. This is what happens though, when you've been out of action for too long!"

Reaching their destination, the plane started to descend, the top of it skimming the belly of the scattered clouds before dropping the nose down a little more. The lands were a svelte green with rough woodland splayed out everywhere with little sign of overlander art spoiling verdant nature. Escot River, the main water source for the city Bridge Falls and Tankaia, came into view looking like a polished silver snake webbing its way through lush trees of pine.

"I have a bad feeling." Tails commented as he geared the plane ever downwards, keeping the turbulence to a minimum, "you should have stayed home. You'll only hurt yourself."

"Don't make me tickle you in the plane." As much as he tried to remain humorous, Tails did not sate him with a reply. The kitson was not in a good mood.

The sky was no longer an unlimited paradise. The ground lurched up like a massive carpet ready to engulf them as they abandoned the heavens. Shadow slowed respectively, keeping his eyes locked onto the path ahead of him. The plane brushed the tops of trees with the faintest touch. "There," Sonic cried suddenly, "to your right."

Tails looked. Many leagues away a small, wooden spire belonging to a temple stuck out against the green ocean like a spearhead. And further on, in the splurge of the sun's healthy glare was a mossy heap of ancient hills that were probably home to a clan.

The landing was a tad rough, but nothing damaged. Being as skilled as he was, Tails could land most of the time almost on any terrain, so long as there was the space.

Not far from the parked biplane was the glugging river of Escot.

Shadow waited, arms crossed as if he was late for an appointment when the windshield cracked open to omit exist for the hedgehog and fox. They aptly jumped down and landed on the thick turf, Sonic's star streaking faintly in the air as he did so from behind his scarf.

"There are hills to the north," Sonic couldn't keep the excitement from his voice, "and the west is where the temple lies. This is Arbiter territory, so they must have their Empire somewhere close. The forests offer great places to vanish in, and the food must be plentiful. Escot River is a main transport route, so it's no wonder they set an ambush here."

"How would _you_ know?" Shadow cried gruffly, sidestepping away immediately when Sonic walked past him.

"When I was healthy, I came here often. Mobius was my playground. I knew almost everything and everywhere. Back then, clans were small. Isolated. But they may have gathered strength and numbers since then." He limped on, eyes discerning the ground for marks. Tracks. Anything. But mostly he looked for oil. Screws. Anything that told of Robotnik. He _wanted_ to see it. He had to.

Tails followed, gracefully jumping over a fallen log while Shadow followed up the beaten track from behind at a carefully measured distance. Here it was quiet and warm. Great pines of senescent beauty grew in healthy abundance. Teal and admiral butterflies flapped hazily around them in the pouring sunlight of a jubilant spring as the three animals dipped into cooler shade. Here drying streams from the main river trickled and burbled over rocks and cobbled stones. Sonic kept away from the river and followed his crooked shadow as he kept in pace with it. Soon he came to the place of the ambush. Like a detective born from being a prey animal, he stopped by the bank, ears angling left and right, nose pointing upwards. Old blood marked the dry grass and scuffle marks made by the victims laced the torrid ground. There were signs of little else except the hasty dash of the Arbiters themselves. From the woodland were evident signs of animals crushing through the long grass and wild flowers to get to the otters at the bank.

"They're dead now." Shadow claimed dismissively, regarding the same marks with an air of impatience. He went round them twice, unimpressed. "You can't help them. It was a waste of time coming out here. You should be resting."

"I'm going to find their Empire." Sonic said, pausing to administer a bout of painful coughing.

"It's always battles and adventures for you. You couldn't find their Empire, and even if you did, haven't you ever thought about making peace with the Arbiters?"

Legs beginning to shake a little from unaccustomed strain, Sonic sat down on the grass, away from the tracks and spilled blood. Upon resting, he felt relieved at once. The other two were hot in the heat. Here he was, fully clothed and with a scarf and still he was not very warm. "We have. All of us have, dude. But they wouldn't have it. They see us as barbarians. We shun Robotnik's technology. We shun anything to do with forerunners while they embrace it and the weaponry that comes with it. We don't because it's evil." He gave Shadow a quick, rudimentary glance from where the hedgehog safely stood. "I'm really glad you never joined them."

A once the regal black hedgehog stiffened and allowed his arms to drop by his slender sides. "What? Why would I do that?"

"Because…" He was smiling grimly. "Because you were born and raised purely by man. You are so _human_ yet you are a hedgehog, buddy. You've lived with their technology for decades. The Ark proves it. And Maria…"

"_Shush!" _ He growled with bated truculence, his red eyes flashing, though it was only with weak warning. There was no malice or anger in his eyes. Only an automatic, defensive response.

Sonic wasn't threatened. Playfully he thought about standing and walking over to Shadow just to see the elder be forced into the river just to avoid stepping into that invisible circle around him. But that was cruel. And the idea faded sourly in his mind. "So why haven't you joined them?"

Shadow gaped wordlessly, then his ears fell back and he softened his grimace. "The Arbiters are just following it the wrong way is all. They should accept all of us. But they fight like forerunners and act like dogs. Sonic, you have also saved my life, twice. I wouldn't go against you."

"Did I?" He asked, looking mortally lost and confused. "I saved…you?"

"Two winters ago." Shadow hurriedly explained, unable to push back the sudden wave of dread, "the Victory? You stopped…the army with me…" Still no recognition lit Sonic's puzzled eyes, "how about the journey to the Waylands Mountains? Sargus?"

"Doesn't ring a bell, Shady."

Tails' eyes flittered to one hog to the other, feeling the need to change the subject. "We could get attacked ourselves, staying here. Sonic, we should go home. We've learnt nothing here except that our friends lost their lives. I may not have known them personally, but I feel sad for them. We should get going."

Sonic shook his head, confusion gone. Instead he was only playful. "Shadow, c'mere, I wanna whisper ya something!"

"Go to hell. It isn't funny." Came his firm rebuttal. Angry, insulted, Shadow turned away to show his back to him.

Sonic pursed his lips; his green eyes watching the butterflies languidly flitter in the mild air above the sparkling surface of the river. "There will be lots of Arbiters, but we need to get close to them. Find a way to their Empire, or at least where it's located. It isn't the temple we saw, it's too small. But it's dangerous. In my state, I can do little. So there's got to be another way." He looked over at Shadow's comely spines. "Shadow, will you help me?"

"So long as it doesn't involve me touching you."

"Actually, it does." Shadow gave him a side glance, looking positively furious. "Come on, Shades! Doing this will result in no more deaths if we co-operate. Ya gotta trust me!"

Shadow's fur rumpled. "Why do you always call me by that ugly name?" A smile married his lips. Small and shy.

Sonic chuckled. His weak laughter startled a few tiny birds gasp out of the trees and into the sky like arrows.

XXX

After brushing her long golden hair, Elva put the comb down, flipped away her mirror and sat on the edge of her bed before numerous computer screens that fed out images, information or diagrams and maps all in one cosmic array. She could choose any at a time, and was utterly absorbed at what was being displayed. If only she had more eyes to take it all in.

The largest screen sat wedged in the middle and she touched it lightly with her finger to bring up a moving real time picture of planet Mobius. The image was being sent by one of Dr. Robotnik's old satellites that he installed decades ago. She rotated the picture to the left with her hand to reveal the Ark orbiting around Mobius while the planet spun slowly. The Ark itself didn't move on its own and seemed to have a fixed orbit over one location. This made her frown briefly at it before closing the picture away. "Project Shadow." She ordered at the screen. A new image flickered up, this time not live feed but rather an anatomy of a black and red hedgehog. His skills were usefully listed below including the stats of his average movement speed, metabolism and DNA structure. Due to her lazy father, not all statistics were filled in, leaving many blanks. The current location of Shadow was annoyingly _unknown. _His latest DNA record was currently also _unknown. _And his latest strength and speed figures were also _unknown. _She clenched her left fist in a small fit of anger.

A small black Arbiter mole scurried into her room carrying a silver tray of tea and a plate of rare delicacies such as sliced melon, grapes and a pot of sugared gelatin sweets.

"Put the tray on my bed stand." She rebuked irritably at the mammal without even paying it a glance, "and don't disturb me again!"

The mole sniffed like a child and scurried back out again as swift as a hare. Elva thrust some unruly hair out of her face and peered at the screens again. "Sonic the hedgehog section D19."

The screen fuzzed to black, then relit with the past recorded images of a thin blue hedgehog. The main enemy of her father who had succeeded in the end after years and years of bloodshed and wars. How this runt of a creature had won she was at a loss. He was just a hedgehog. Shadow was by far the strongest, yet Gerald's creation had done little, if at all against the forerunners and the natives of the planet.

The latest images of Sonic performing his dizzying heights of agility and drifts from the spybots showed a white star on his chest. A _draconia _star. She knew little about _draconia. _She had read what she could after seeing his strange mark for the first time. The spy bots had recorded everything and did a good job of it too, without being seen for the most part.

She sat for a while, thinking and fussily straightening out the wrinkles in her blue silk dress she had found in the bedroom closet, in her size. She sat for a good while, considering. Her plans had to be made carefully. She would underestimate nothing, or else go like her senile creator.

How many dragons were there left on Mobius? The screen on the left rolled out a long list of current living dragons. She needed five to collect and drain to understand this _draconia _element and then she could use this as a weapon. Her father killed the dragons and had never used them for his weapons except their hardened shells. It was that that had inspired him for SWATbot armor and the like. And the lazer guns were a recreation of the fire that shot like hell from the maw of such a beast. But never had Dr. Robotnik harvested them for anything else. Yes, yes five would do. She thought with a nod. Closing some of the screens, she sat back and drank some of her hot tea, complete with milk and sugar. Then she esuriently ate a few of the gelatin treats before reminiscing once more. The Arbiters followed her dumbly and would do _anything _for her. That was a given. But any trap she laid out for Sonic would surely fail? Latest records said that his last home, Knothole was destroyed, its hidden location stripped bare for all to see. And she did know where Sonic was hiding at present. Mobius was simply too big to search. All she had to do was draw him out. But Shadow - what about him? The Arbiters didn't have the technology to reach Angel Island yet either. But they had a few chaos emeralds and that was all she would be needing.

A light tap knocked on her door. She swung her luxuriant gold hair back and plastered on a weedy, troubled smile. "Come in."

Lord Rathuier stepped in, his huge fat tail wrapped around his left arm like a loose bit of garment. He smiled queasily at her and bowed before speaking. "My queen, is everything to your liking here?"

"Yes, almost." She said. "But I want two more fur carpets. The one I have already is too old and too small."

"But it is of the highest quality my queen!" He said at once, "from the very extinct caribou-"

"Did you not hear me?"

"Yes, yes, my queen. We shall get you fur! The softest I promise!"

She straightened her back and then got up and stood proudly beside the hearth of the fireplace. The sparkle of the embers made her mood lift. The forerunners made and controlled fire like wicked magic. Whereas animals feared and hated it. Only the Arbiters risked its malevolent power.

"Lord Rathuier," he bowed respectfully, "where did you find me again?"

"Down in the bottom cave following up from the eighth tunnel of Lord Robotnik's last hidden factory and lab, my queen. His death - his terrible death activated you. Every five years a switch must be pressed to keep you in stasis. But when Robotnik, bless his soul, died, and with no one to press the switch, you were born."

"So all along he had me as a backup plan." She scowled at the very idea of it. Her? A backup plan? Why had Robotnik not activated her sooner so that they could rule together, hand in hand? She was the only forerunner left alive capable of ruling a planet (the other humans that lived in the wild were filth) and she was lonely for it. A million loyal animals would never do. She wanted human companionship. Human! Oh to hell with it all! She ground her teeth and lifted her pale blue eyes up at the rat in vile disgust. "And what does he expect of me?"

"Robotnik?" The rat mumbled feebly, "to rule of course! And to continue his work! When we found you, there were old documents, something to do with cloning and splitting of DNA. You must have taken decades to perfect!"

"Don't you dare smile at me!"

"I-I wasn't!"

"I am not a science project! Don't you smile at me!" Her temple flared and she slapped the old rat across his wrinkled muzzle. The animal fell back at once and wriggled backwards until his back hit the wall. His old Emperor crown scuttled across the floor and stopped at Elva's feet.

"No, no my queen!" He cried, shivering, "no! He gave birth to you! You are his phoenix! A second chance! He loved you!"

She stopped at once and her hands fell away. Her anger left her and Elva returned stiffly back to her bed and sat down upon it. The screens continued throbbing out information. Designs. Pictures and weapon listings.

"How long was I asleep for?" She brought herself to ask.

The rat, not sure if he was allowed to, did not rise to his feet. He merely coughed and replied, "I don't know. A long time. At least one whole decade. A lot of his documents we found were too old and faded to be read upon and many were in the ancient language of the sacred forerunners. If you want to read them, access them from your screens, my queen."

"And how- how did you- find me?"

"An accident it was, my queen. And a lucky accident too. We were on the run, you see, from the last of the freedom fighters. They had uncovered one of our secret dens and so at least thirty of us retreated nearer the mountains in the eastern jungles of Salven. We came across old, old factories that were riddled with nature herself an…"

"Get on with it!" She screamed suddenly.

The rat choked with fear, "we - few found an old chute - intact from damage. We followed it in, and there were old patrol bots down below. Ten or so of us died trying to deactivate them so as not to harm Lord Dr. Robotnik's sacred servants. Then we went through six doors, another chute and then we found you. Asleep in stasis. We waited nine days down there until the cryochamber released you after its timer was up. We dared not awake you any earlier, in fear of what damage it may have on you. And - and here you are!" He smiled dumbly.

She hated his fear and cowardice.

"That will be all." She snapped icily. "Now go and get me my two fur carpets!"

"At once, my queen!" He shot out through the entrance, almost shutting his long tapered tail in the door. She shook her head and returned to the screens. Robotnik had left her everything. His old war factories (though most were in ruin) his laboratories in every far corner of Mobius, and various specially designed androids, battle ships and weapons. But she was bored and lonely, despite all of his technology at her very fingertips.

Again she reloaded the screens of Sonic and Shadow. There were others but none deemed as much threat to her throne as did these two. Shadow's age was approx. 66 years. His strength and power were only matched by the chaos emeralds. Sonic's present age was 18. And despite the strength of the black hedgehog, Sonic was remarkably weaker. Though his speed could now easily hit 175 mph despite his accidents in the past, it was that star marked on the animal that could unlock and destroy him. And with those last two dumb fools out the way, her conquest would be complete. But how Robotnik had been so easily destroyed by one mere hedgehog despite his tyrannical rule was - was disgusting and unforgivable. Her father must have made a mistake along the way somehow and she did not want to make the same one.

"Present populace of the dragon species." She snapped at the screens.

Lists came up. It took three seconds to successfully calculate.

The screen spoke back at her in Robotnik's old recorded voice;

'_Approx 15 dragons left._

_Two species._

_12 pure razor dragons_

_3 half breeds remaining_.

_6 fully grown - calculating -_

_9 juveniles - calculating -_

_All located within the warmer regions of Salven and Lornesa._

_Calculating -_

_Calculating -_

_Leading chemical Ultras Draconia Lumina- insufficient data. Unknown._

_Calculating -'_


	3. Who wants to be an Arbiter for a day?

**Dib07: **Sorry for the lateness again, AGAIN! Don't worry though, for those of you wondering when this will get updated, Star Breaker is now being updated weekly, or at least every other week, so no long bouts of no updates from me! I am aware I haven't had time to reply to everyone's review from last time (I know, I am so bad), so I'm going to go through them so that you all get a personal thank you! ^_^ Hhahaha! So here's to the readers, you! And thanks for sticking with this story folks!

XxXxX

Chapter 3: Who would like to be an Arbiter for the day?

'_From darkness here and dreariness _

_We ask not full repose,_

_Only be Thou at hand, to bless_

_Our trial hour of woes.'_

_John Keble - Consolation_

_xx  
><em>

_xxx  
><em>

The following day it was cloudy and cold, a vast difference from the sudden heat given to them yesterday as savage winds blew down from the north. The sun banked behind the white mist of the dawn and the trees hung numbly where they stood as if in mortal slumber. Sonic was comically laughing as he drenched thick mud and clay into his fur with heavy slaps of his hand. When that was not enough to cover his back and lower spines, he rolled into the mud puddles with joyous enthusiasm. His fine, glossy blue quills were recoated in ugly sorrel, a reflection of the true color he once was.

They had walked to the outskirts of Faux Forest to head for the cool clay pits. Here the midges and flies were starting to build in the lightening gloom of the chilly morning. Shadow copiously kept biting and slapping them away while he painted his bold red stripes with black root rot and fine dirt silt.

"I can't believe I'm doing this!" Sonic giggled in between his feverish bouts of foolish, yet innocent chuckles. "Oh Dowa, what has become of the handsome harkla? What has befallen Sonic, hero of all good and speedy?"

"Oh, quit your whining you infidel! This is all your idea! And it had better bloody work or else I'll fucking skin you and use you as a fur carpet!"

"_If_ those sleazy Arbiters don't first!" He threw himself down into more sloppy mud, chortling more from Shadow's grievous looks than the act itself.

"Dear God." The elder grit his sharp teeth together and threw of his beloved boots and gloves. The self-sacrifice had to go one step further, which meant letting go of his four gold power limiters that were clamped upon each wrist and ankle. He bundled them in a heap and shoved the items under a bush a tad angrily. He may as well be giving up his heart and soul.

Sonic lathered himself so much in mud that he felt like he weighed a ton when he tried to limp back out the pit. In the end, Shadow had to come and help him out, which resulted in having to touch him. The contact was brief and painful. It was just enough to pull the brown blur out before Shadow tidily turned away, putting on old leather boots to replace his hover ones. Sonic crawled out to a patch of sunlight and waited for the mud to dry.

"It's just going to crumble off." Shadow remarked acridly when he threw over to him a robe and a pair of ankle-high boots. "And then you'll give yourself away. Was there no easier alternative?"

"No. Full costumes are too risky. They'd search us, and find that we'd be wearing loose skins. Besides, I bathed in clay, so I should stay brown for longer… I hope!" He pulled on his robe, careful of his quills and then buttoned it down his front to conceal the comely white star. Shadow threw on his own robe, fitted with a hood, and pulled it down hard over his head so that his displeased face was bathed in shadow.

"If this doesn't work…" He began, sounding terribly tired and impatient as if this attempt was nothing but a child's game that had been quickly thought up. "We should have gone to the princess. I know you may have heard this already, but once she assess the situation, _then_ we go in under her plans. And it would work. More or less."

"It'll work. Spare some faith, Shades and stop looking so sour." He paused long enough to cough hard into his hands, "we gotta make our voices deeper, and pretend that we've killed a lot of animals. Apparently the more they kill, and the more things they've raided, the higher ranked they are!"

"Okaaay?" Shadow rose a speculative eye ridge in a conspicuous manner, "then what else? We follow them to this…Empire? What if they don't take us there?"

"I'll handle it!"

Shadow displayed the deadly edges of his canines. Canines that could tear into flesh with sublime ease. "And if they find out who we really are? And attack us?"

"You'll handle that!" He smiled wistfully, enjoying Shadow's looks of sore contempt and disgust all too much. He looked down at his scrawny arms, enjoying the colorful art of the brown veneering all and everything. His robe would help keep him warmer if nothing else, but the trek to actually find Arbiters could take some time, even in the Badlands. The lura motto went: _you never find Arbiters. They always find you. _"One thing though…" He began, limping forwards. Shadow acted as if he had been backhanded and solidly jumped clear to give Sonic the space. "You're going to have to give me a piggyback ride."

"Shit. I am _not_ touching you."

"I had to leave Tails behind!" Sonic paused, thinking. The mist around them was starting to abscond and disintegrate slowly, like ghosts melding into the air once more. Finding the Empire was a serious mission. And only he, Shadow and Tails knew anything about it. Sonic's true objective was to find Robotnik, even if it meant wasting his time with the nomads of Mobius to find him. "Look, Shades…it's not that bad!" He curtly admonished with all the gentleness that he could muster, reaching out to touch the elder.

Shadow jerked from under his hand with amazing, record-breaking agility. With Sonic's speed terminated, the elder was truly the fastest thing on Mobius, even if he didn't seem to know it. Or acknowledge it for that matter. "It is! I hate it! It's bad… it's wrong! You don't know how bad it is!"

"You need to get used to it."

"I've been trying for three months! You don't know what it's like!"

"I do." He tried again, allowing his approach to be a much slower one. His hand rested on Shadow's shoulder. The elder shrugged him off brutishly. Hatefully. His ears were curled back, face a lengthy grimace. "Shades… it'll be for just a while. Think of all the families getting murdered. We gotta do this thing, buddy."

Shadow gave a deep, long outward sigh. It did little to alleviate the tension. But it was enough. "Try again. How does Tails put up with you?"

"Beats me. You aren't gonna hit me, are you?"

"If it were that simple…"

Sonic stood directly abreast of him, their shoulders merely inches apart, the closet he had ever gotten to Shadow without the elder rebuking the close proximity as if he were a ticking bomb. Torpidly, lightly, Sonic clutched Shadow's upper arm beneath the hem of his cloak. The elder started, quills remaining loose and not firming into ridged edges. He bent slightly forwards as if to get away, but he stayed.

"Ya ready?" Sonic whispered.

"I'm going to get you back for this. Paint you a puddle of water and hang it above your bed." He hissed without giving him the satisfaction of eye contact.

Sonic shrugged. "Just don't drop me."

"It'll be the last thing I do. Trust me; you'd know if you were me."

"Not my fault you're so sensitive."

"It saved your life."

Sonic sighed, giving up. The Ultimate Life Form had an answer to everything.

Hesitantly, (and this was rare for him to reveal any signs of reluctance), Sonic considered the elder's back with diffident dismay. Without speaking, Shadow politely lowered himself down for admittance, sensing his companion's tentative decision.

"I'm sorry, Shades." Closing the final distance, Sonic hopped up with nimble delicacy, straddling his muddy brown arms around Shadow's neck and getting his middle comfortable between Shadow's upper back spines. The elder hooked his legs up to support him, and raised himself to his feet, Sonic safely secured on his back. "Whatever you do, keep your quills loose, Shades, otherwise it's gonna hurt."

The elder bit down on his lip, ears remaining deftly curled, eyes bitterly narrowed. He said nothing in reply and started walking forwards, heading through the thinning, wispy mist and across dewy meadows. The hedgehog admired the elder's courage and playfully smiled; knowing that for now, Shadow had conquered at least one small barrier.

Walking fluidly, Shadow headed dutifully towards nomad country as the dawn withered and aged, ushering in a bright, cloudless morning that was riddled with loose winds. It least this way, Shadow didn't get so hot under his cloak.

"There's something I want to do for you, hog." Shadow said in the comfortable silence after a bout of walking and heading roughly in the same direction to the outskirts of friendly territory. Sonic had been gazing openly at the slowly passing scenery and watching the birds fly overhead like a child desperate to take it all in.

"Like…er, what?"

"It's nothing much. But I think you'll appreciate it."

Sonic opened his mouth to question the black elder, sure he had missed something. Then, without consent, Shadow's speed began to mount. Like Sonic, he could not achieve full speed without his proper shoes, but even with these old boots, he was able to go faster than the average 100 mph so long as the terrain remained open and he had the room to make his strides. This was the fastest Sonic had ever seen in many, many months.

One arm braced across Shadow's chest, he raised the other one, unable to contain his excitement. His reaction was pure, healthy laughter that started from deep inside him. Soon he was full of happy, elated chuckles as Shadow zoomed across the grassy dunes and dry country. He too, was smiling.

The gift was over too soon for Sonic, but he knew Shadow had to stop and get on with business. Swollen with the euphoria of speed, Sonic was happy and patient for much of the trip. Much patience he had inevitably gathered simply from being bedridden for more than half a year. Bad health had the ability to change personality and attitude. It didn't take away who he was, but lying in bed had made him much more resigned about a lot of things.

For many miles they saw no one. Not even in farms or fields. They tried known Arbiter hangouts but had no luck. The tracks left behind were old and hard to read, and the smells nonexistent. Shadow pushed deeper into the Badlands, stopping occasionally to listen for signs of movement; danger even. Or smells of a distant campfire. Often he paused, ears spanning round and focusing on what lay behind them. Sonic realized that Shadow's senses were skewered because of him, and hoped that he wasn't massively hindering him too much.

"I swear we're being followed." Shadow would say on a regular, paranoid basis, looking round him with evident dismay. "Hear anything?"

"No. Nothing."

The day was indeed silent and carefree. They could even hear little snakes roaming through the grass and birds merrily jostling for space in the treetops. Even some plainlore beast mooing far up in the hills. It was all so peaceful and unusually quiet that Sonic could not sense Shadow's urgency in return, nor see the reason to be so concerned. But then again, his own confidence was so steadfast that every once in a while other animals seemed flaky and under pressure when none existed.

The sun pressed lower under the barren sky after a long, wearisome day of travelling. They rested to eat under tall shadows of overgrown dogweed and loosestrife. Sonic managed to remain brown by slapping more mud with water from drying puddles to keep it pasted onto his grimy fur that had started to go blue again.

After finishing up on the berries and apples, the sun turned into a bright, pink ball in the belly of the heavens. It was around this time that Shadow roused himself from the grass to smell a bitter male animal odor on the breeze.

They weren't alone.

"We've got company." Shadow mused aloud, eyes trying to be everywhere at once, "get up, now!"

They both stood alert and waited. The animal smells thickened on the air into many different aromas. A group of maybe five or six creatures were coming downwind of them. Sonic held firm, hoping his companion would do the same.

Eventually, after the tension built, only four animals clambered out of the thick grass and hemlock, coming along their path in brash haste. One was a stoat, littered and bruised in scars. Two were burly otters with hunched muscles and grinning teeth. Leading them was an old dog fox who had only one ear.

All four were heavily armed with gun swords, and they were scarlet sashes, scarves and silver chest plates. The fox wore a red bandana around his head.

Failing to smell the two hedgehogs, the old fox raised a hand up to stop his fellow patrol. His nose wrinkled and his grim eyes set them a long, ghastly stare of fortitude. He acknowledged them with a thrust of his gun sword.

"Wa is dis then?" Spoke the white stoat first, his derelict in tune with that of Outcast's.

The lead fox grunted thickly, his aim unwavering. "Who are ya two, eh? Peasants?"

Shadow addressed him as he peered out from the hood of his cloak, unafraid. He muttered in his soft, throaty voice, "we are Arbiters, just like you!"

Sonic whimpered quietly. The Ultimate Life Form had failed to mask his voice.

"Prove it." Jibbed the fox. His steely grey eyes looked as fiendish and as sharp as his gun sword that admired them from a distance.

"We are loners, really." Sonic said huskily, "we kill those in our way and feast on meat and drink blood every night. What more proof do you want from us vagabonds?"

"Your names!" Spat the Arbiter leader.

"Er, Starfire." Sonic gruffly retorted at once.

Shadow added, "and I am Captain Doublekill."

"Never heard of any of ya." Said the fox. He didn't look terribly satisfied, "and you say you're vagabonds, eh? Well, I suppose we'll_ hafta_ believe yer for nows. There's no use fighting our own when we got enough enemies as it is." The gun sword was thankfully lowered. However, the fox's eyes still remained arrestingly detrimental.

"We were actually escaping," Sonic found himself saying in the hopes to smitten their suspicion, "you see, we got ambushed, me and Captain Doublekill. By freedom fighters." The very name made the 'real' Arbiters shudder. "they took our supplies and killed our one other friend, Injustice. We need to team up, and be more powerful."

_Great._ Shadow thought. _Now Sonic's given them questions to ask._ The fox glanced idly at his Arbiter comrades. Shadow's heart was thumping hard in his chest. _What if they suspect something?_

At length, after giving it some thought, the fox replied callously, "s'right, I think I believe ya. My name is Hura. We are a scoutin' party, patrolling de western borders fer food and loot, so we does not 'ave enough supplies to feed ya properly."

Maybe the reason they did not question Sonic was because attack upon Arbiters was common. As the goshawk preys upon the pigeon, so does the forerunner worshippers come into frequent conflict. With themselves or the freedom fighters.

"Just show us where we can shelter, for we are tired. If you give us refuge, we will pay you handsomely."

At once the Arbiters gazed upon them with lucid interest that forwent their previous reservation. Money, treasure or anything close always aroused their interests like mercenaries to gold pieces. Their greed was notorious.

Hura's one ear pricked forwards and his icy eyes warmed a little. "How? Ya carry no bags or anything at all, not even weapons."

"We have connections in Ackliby." Sonic was saying off the top of his head using the wide list of places he had visited and memorized during his lifetime of travel. "Once you take us in, you'll be rewarded. All of you."

Hura scowled at them. "What are ya exactly? Remove yer hoods."

His command was something Sonic didn't wish to disobey. Hura looked like a nasty piece of work. His whole leering stance told the hedgehog that the fox had plenty of fight in him. He'd be a hard one to kill. Arbiters usually were, and fought to the death without fear of losing their own life. Honor was by far the higher price.

Shadow was Sonic's only guarantee if things turned for the worst.

Slowly, the two of them removed their hoods. The nomads stared at them with sudden hostility.

"Can ol' harklas actually be Arbiters?" The stoat conveyed with one of the otters.

Hura nodded nonetheless and they put their hoods back over their heads. Obviously the offer of their rewards was certain trust enough.

"I make no deals." Said the fox wryly, "but I will take both of ya to Akankto Fort, our Empire. You'll be safe there, but once you join us you'll have to do as the High Lords say. You can't be nomads in Akankto. And I'm afraid that once you go there, you can't leave again until you have both passed a test of supreme loyalty to the court. If you fail, you'll be killed." He uttered this so casually, as if his experience with death and killing was as common as reading a book by the fire. "When you pass, however, they'll give you this." He lifted up the sash around his waist a little to reveal a red tattoo of the abdominal Dr. Robotnik logo on his thigh. A round face with the famous moustache, eyes and grinning teeth.

"Are they still issuing those?" Sonic asked.

Shadow slapped him round the head at once with a clouting buff. The Arbiters watched and were impressed by the discipline issued by the Captain.

However, the otter commented with skepticism, "nomads who do not know the home country. Disgusting. They are not Arbiters of any name until they get the mark of our Great One."

"Starfire, Captain Doublekill, welcome." Hura growled with as much warmth as he could ever muster, "follow me. We will take you home."

Starfire confessed he was weak from an old injury and could not walk. To see proof, Sonic happily showed them his three claw scars that had lacerated his right side in grisly detail.

"What de fuck did that to yor?" Asked the weedy stoat who had been the first to doubt their identities.

"Wolves."

With the massive scarring in mind, the Arbiters seemed to accept them even more. Scars showed the life and honor of their clans, and thus were a status symbol of their battles and survival. And thus no more questions were asked. Shadow was less worried. Killing the nomads wasn't hard, but he had to defend Sonic at the same time if they suddenly desired to attack. And the blue blur could not run. Also, finding the Empire's location was their biggest objective. If not seeking it from the skies, than on land, where it was mostly likely to be hidden by jungle and shrub. It was time to find out…soon.

Opting for the continuation of the piggyback ride, Sonic latched onto Shadow's cloaked back, arms pinned around his front as they traveled over knobby hills and grassy gorges that bristled into the land like chapped bones. The cool afternoon aged, and still they picked their way upland in single file, Hura at the front and Shadow at the back. Though the elder knew not where he was, Sonic still recognized the dry, strange domains from earlier days.

"The Badlands are pretty big. All this time we've been in it. To the south of here used to be numerous robot camps were Robotnik would set up watch posts or to scout on where to next drill up ore and minerals. You can still see old factories where he'd be building secondary posts and energy generators."

"Hush! Or they'll hear!" Shadow hissed back. "This is no tour!"

The sun descended at their backs, turning the sky a rich, deep fiery gold and red before taking the final plunge into the horizon. Soon the stars and fragmented luminosity of the moon shone down upon their expedition as it pondered silently in the dark heavens in a grinning glare of stark silver and white.

The earth was getting more raw and ugly. They had passed the last string of greenery and now traipsed over barren, cracked land where once, long ago, this place was rich with life. Now it was ripped and bled dry. Trees shredded to make room for refinery stations or nuclear testing. Even the oily blood of pollution had once flowed here like water. Even here though, where there was little to nothing to be obtained, the Arbiters lived upon these spoiled lands like fleas. A few times their single file encountered other troops and parties of sinister, lean pirates. Most were wolves or hunkering great rats whose jutting teeth were so saturated with disease that one bite could probably kill almost any animal. The hedgehogs could only assume that these passing soldiers of the night were patrolling, or out to seek fresh loot from hapless villages outside of their own borders.

Finally Hura halted them promptly at the edge of a stagnant hillside where what trees remained were black and sagged like gluey slime. Their bark blistered and scorched. Everything was dead here. The only thing that did prevail and grow were the thorn bushes and tattered shrubs of hawthorn. It was enough to provide a glen of shelter for the troop and to help hide them from other Arbiters. Many nomads murdered their own if they were desperate enough for food or glory. Their strange, brutal hierarchy where leadership was won through sheer savageness and tricky was the only thing holding them back. If they amended their primitive ways and worked together, then one day they'd become the largest threat Mobius had ever known. Until then, if they kept fighting amongst themselves, there was a big chance to further scatter them all.

"You've managed to touch me all day." Sonic coughed lightly, smiling lopsidedly when Shadow sat down next to him underneath a heavy thicket of hawthorn that provided a little leafy alcove for them to repose under. Hura and the others had rested further off at a respectable distance. The white stoat took sentry watch for the first two hours.

Shadow shook off his hood, red eyes discerning the leafy opening for a suspicious moment or two before finally seeing reason to settle. He wriggled further in beside the plant roots before lying on his side.

"Captain Doublekill…" Sonic whispered jokingly, "this sure is fun, ain't it buddy?"

"No. Getting ourselves in trouble like this is not fun. We're heading deeper and deeper into backwater filth. If they find out who we… who _you_ are, we're fucked. And it's a long trip back home."

"You're all pissy cuz you had to carry me."

Shadow grunted and fidgeted where he lay, coming to rest awkwardly on solid earth and stone. Living rough and wild was the worst part about it. Sonic meanwhile had curled tightly into a closely-knit ball and had already closed his eyes.

Shadow, suffering from what forerunners would call 'insomnia,' could, would not sleep. He rested his head and nest of black quills against his sleeved arm and watched a shooting star race across the black miasma of the heavens through the canopy of the thorny bush.

Long into the tireless night the grisly stoat soon traded places with one of the otters. A warm breeze jostled the hawthorn and Sonic sneezed and flipped over onto his other side, mumbling incoherent words. His robe, though still buttoned up, had loosened down, revealing his dazzling, almost blinding white star. Shadow softly cursed and sat up gently to pull his robe back up to hide it. Fuck if they saw it, they just might know who he was.

Settling back down, Shadow huffed and tried to doze. After a long battle, he finally slept.

Caught in a web of sticky dreams, Sonic snoozed fitfully as if he was safe and secure in own warm bed at home. So flourished was he in sleep that when a hand went to touch him, he jumped from his dreamy visions and into robust darkness, not having a clue where he was. Gasping, coughing, he plunged to get away, body riding on the flight reflex. Instead he got tangled in the barbed roots and verdure of the hawthorn.

Unable to see much, his sight was swamped by a dark figure descending upon him, its silhouette blotting out the nefarious stars. "Sal..." He went to cry when a gloved hand pressed over his mouth, stifling his words.

"Sonic! Hush! It's me! Your brother!"

He tried to mumble back, hand still secure over his mouth. He was able to see a little more. The long, pointy ears, the white muzzle. A flash of two tails.

"I'm going to remove my hand now. It's okay."

The hand came away and Sonic instantly lurched upright, hand stretching out to feel for the fox. "T-Tails?"

"Gee, brother, sorry if I startled you, but you had me worried there for a moment. The winter really has changed you."

"_What_ are you doing here?" Surprise had turned into a quick rush of anger. Tails was here! Here of all places! In the Badlands! "You shouldn't be here, Tails! You'll be caught! They'll know you by sight!"

"I couldn't leave you." Tails replied in the blackness. His voice cracked a little in sadness while the night hid his expression. "I thought you'd be pleased to see me!"

"I am! But not here!" He dropped his voice and looked about him, coughing in the darkness. Shadow looked asleep, but presumably wasn't. He could hear a gnat move. The sentry on guard duty was too far to smell or hear their discussion, as the tussling breezes were in the wrong direction. But that could change. "Tails, ya gotta go back home!"

"I'm not leaving you!" Protested his bother with stern declaration. "I walked all this way without being seen. You taught me! Remember?"

"No! I can't remember hardly anything thanks to the surgery!" He paused, trying to think hard and fast. "We're on route to their Empire, Tails. It'll only get more dangerous from here on. You can't follow us any further!"

"I have the plane."

"What?"

"The plane! I left it near Feral Woods, thirteen leagues from here. I can move it when it's safe enough, bring it a bit closer, you know?"

Sonic slapped a hand to his forehead, "they might find it, bud!"

"Sonic! This isn't like you at all!"

"I'm worried about you!" He conferred at once, "if I were strong enough, I'd be less anxious, but I can't defend you if something goes wrong. I can barely walk."

"Then what are you doing out here?"

Sonic gazed at his dark, unreadable face in the darkness. _Robotnik. That's why I'm out here. I can't let it rest. I have to find him. _But he couldn't say that. His brother would class him as insane. They all believed him dead. Dead and long gone. Probably a rotting carcass by now, the bones poking through rancid flesh. The worms feasting upon a dark, vanquished lord. Nothing to mark his grave.

"I don't like this." Tails swallowed hard when he got no response, "this isn't the adventure I wanted for you. And if you won't back out, then neither will I. I'm going to keep following you two. I'll be fine. I've had the best teacher."

"And who was that?"

Tails rolled his eyes, the furtive manner unseen in the cloying dark of night. "_You_, silly! Don't you remember anything?"


	4. The Trial

**Dib07:  
><strong>Heh, I know - where have I been? XD I went on a holiday for a week, and even though I had an opportunity to post, I still failed to get it up in time *facepalm* So here it it at last. I hope you guys remembered what happened last chapter. Sonic and Shadow have digressed into enemy territory at their own risk without telling anyone where they are going. They want information about the Arbiters; an organization who value human technology.

**Chapter 4: The Trial**

'_And dangerous our course; _

_But in the true courage never fails. _

_In vain the stream in foaming eddies whirls: _

_In vain the wide gaping threatens death._

_What lengths we pass!'_

_William Somerville - The Chase_

_xxx  
><em>

The Arbiters woke them just after dawn. The mist made a triumphant return, and the silver, wispy edifices seemed to expand and grow, wrapping the hills in white, clotting shrouds. A trumpet call of plainlore geese that hadn't evolved in more than a hundred thousand years, echoed across the dim light of the valley.

Captain Doublekill remained solemn and quiet and walked along behind the scarred stoat, aptly named Quicksand. Their march wasn't in any way military fashion, but they didn't stop for anything unless a scout signaled danger. In time they walked straight through a misty, sullen forest that still dripped with old rainwater that had fallen briefly during the cold night. Pools of strange blue water were everywhere and exotic, alien flowers grew in bright purple clusters near such waters. Hura, in the lead actually showed some fear as they meandered under the burly shadows of ancient trees. Here the darkness lapped around them and Quicksand lit an old oil lantern just to see ahead.

"This here a shortcut." Said the otter beside Shadow. "We don' often go dis' way, ghosts live ere' and old creatures o' the north."

"Old creatures?" Shadow whispered back.

"Aye. Strange beasts. We avoid dem, en' they avoid us."

"Are they dangerous?"

"Some are. Watch yer step."

Shadow almost walked straight into an old mantrap. He growled and sauntered around it, holding Sonic's legs tight, scenting the trap's cold, rotting iron. It was old. But luckily the trap was already shut. So he asked the obvious question, and now looking well ahead of him, "did forerunners used to live here?"

"The sacred humans of old? Ah, yes. The Overlanders did - a long time ago. Sometimes you can still see their ruins. Old stone tablets perhaps or ancient wooden shelves in the lees and alcoves of the caves round 'ere. And o' course the mantraps." They walked on in silence for a few moments as Shadow listened to the strange new sounds of the forest. Tiny silver birds looped in and out of the canopy of the mammoth branches roofing them from the sun. Large dazzling emerald dragonflies dipped in and out of the tranquil cyan pools. The smells weren't putrid or repulsive here, but they held the hint of deep rot and unpleasantness.

As they passed under hulking great walls of fungus that grew copiously around tree trunks like sewage, Hura quickened his step and the others took heed with the swifter pace. Before long after tirelessly trooping quick and hard in a foreign, dangerous world they passed through a curtain of willow tree leaves and out into a manmade courtyard that wasn't part of the forest at all. It had rather, been built into it. And before them were stone buildings, much unlike the Arbiter fashion to build. There was a single well, a wind mill smaller than the one Sonic lived near, and a grievous temple whose apex reached high above them in a triangular shape. Its steep sides were straight - another man design - and along its front end, steeper still, was a long slope of stairs leading inevitably upwards. And among them the cobbled paths were choking with Arbiters. Old or young. Grim or savage. This whole part of the forest must have been cut away to hide such a place. It was ironic - or so he thought. Here the Arbiters had done exactly how Sonic had lived in Knothole. Secluded. Hidden in the recesses of the wild jungle forest where man used to live and hide during the wars of old. And they were thriving.

So was this place their Empire? It had to be. It ticked all the right boxes.

"Captain?" Sonic peered equably at the buildings through the shadow of his hood. He was smiling. "This is it then. Now what?"

"Haven't you planned any further?" He couldn't help but sound irate and surprised.

"Yeah, we get into their temple, right, Shades? But that isn't their Empire. At least I don't think so."

"What do you mean?" He frowned crossly and was aware of Hura glance at them menacingly as the warrior fox spoke to Quicksand ten yards away while Arbiter villagers (who looked just as hostile as their freelancers) carried buckets of water or sacks of meat.

"Look behind the temple."

Shadow meandered towards the temple. Arbiters, some rare breeds of bear or white fox, stood like solemn guards holding spears or lances at the bottom of the stone steps. Many followed him with their eyes. He hoped his façade would trick them as well but it depended on who was less feasible to his pretences.

Sure enough a strong, working factory was coupled with the temple. It had been behind shadow and foliage. Shadow cursed himself bitterly for having missed it the first time. Smoke rose from a tiny remote chimney up top, barely visible against the lay of the sun and the tops of the highest trees. Its ugly sheer metal walls had no doors nor windows. Nothing to grant any visible access. A four meter wide casing of iron hugged the backside of the temple like a greedy, obese leech and it was this that connected the huge factory where the rest of was hidden behind the veil of forest.

"A hidden factory from the Doctor?" He wondered aloud as he stopped dead in his tracks. But Arbiters couldn't begin to learn how to use such things?

"Who are you?" Snapped a brusque grunt.

The hedgehog muttered, "Captain Doublekill. Who are you?" He set glowering eyes upon a wolverine. He hadn't seen one of them for a while. This one, like most of its kind, was strong and tall. In its claws were two slender throwing axes.

"Never mind who I am." The creature said, its bright green eyes glowing like radioactive slime, "I don't recognize you and I know every single Arbiter here. Who sent you and which clan are you in?"

"No clan. We are vagrants. Hura took us here."

"Hura? And where were you when he found you?"

"West of the Badlands, near Faux Forest."

The wolverine stepped closer, his black nose snorting up his scent. "You don't smell like a killer." He justified.

"I haven't killed in a while." Shadow replied sublimely, not the least bit unruffled. "We've been having it bad. Me and Starfire. We got attacked by freedom fighters."

"Argh, I see. Where's your mark?"

"Mark?"

"He means the Eggman logo." Sonic whispered into his ear.

"Oh." He nodded a little too politely and apologetically to the waiting wolverine. "We don't have one yet. We've come to see your High Lords. We are here to be accepted." It was simple enough. Go in, see a bunch of old farts, kill them and the guards and explore the temple in little time. Thanks to Sonic rush in plans to get here; they had no communicator if something went wrong. So how was Tails to know when and where to pick them up? Maybe he should have said something while the fox and hedgehog were conversing that night, but he hadn't.

"Argh." The wolverine gave him another long look as if he was seeing how much meat was on Shadow's bones. "Well then, come with me. The trials start soon anyway for all newcomers alike."

"Trials?" Sonic asked at his ear.

"Don't you remember? Hura said yesterday that we can't leave until we pass a loyalty test in their court. It'll be easy. We'll kill the High Lords before a trial even begins. You can just stand and look pretty."

"Funny, har har."

Shadow was led up the moss-coated stone steps, the thick, lush wolverine all muscle and armor before them. Shadow evaluated each and every warrior he saw, looking how to terminate them in a pinch. Sonic on the other hand was not worried. He whistled a few irksome tunes in his ear to allay his boredom of the piggyback ride.

They entered a grand hallway where the floor was old, cracked marble. Overlander statues of broken copper and stone resided in the corners like spies. Old winter leaves twirled upon the marble flooring when the iron doors were forced open to allow the newcomers entry. As expected, there were more guards at every doorway or window.

_So they aren't all disorganized barbarians as I thought_. The elder mused in concern.

"This way." The wolverine barked to sum their attention, "and stay close."

Leaving the high stone alcoves and marble wonders behind of forerunner history, Shadow clambered after the wolverine through a wooden old door and down a tight, narrow corridor that descended rather steeply downwards. "We're heading under the temple now," the Arbiter growled, "where many chambers have been erected. It tends to get a bit busy, but I know a way into the barracks without having to push through the crowds."

"Barracks?" Shadow quipped softly.

"Aye."

"What kind of trials are we talking about here?" He began to hear noise. And a lot of it. Animal voices all converged into one as they hollered and sung out their epiphanies. Some laughter, but mostly drunken chants that could only mean one thing.

As they proceeded further down, it grew hotter. The floor leveled off and the wolverine opened another door that led out into a grand chamber indeed. Even the greengot worms in their little lanterns posted on the walls did not give enough light to reveal the stunning array of weaponry hanging up on walls, stacked on wooden benches or left in rusty heaps on dinner tables. Smitten, Shadow stood and allowed Sonic time to get down.

"You may only pick one weapon from the choice of many." The wolverine instructed in his grunting, demonic voice. "To show your worth of Arbiter, you may face one opponent in combat."

"Just one?" Sonic asked. "That's sounds kinda…easy."

"Once the trail is over, you go up to see the High Lords." The wolverine ran a claw over the edge of a rusty old cleaver hanging by a hook beside an arrangement of axes, all composing of different hilts and lengths. There were swords, guns, rifles, batons, oars, maces, shields. "And then you are granted honor. The honor of being blessed with a chaos emerald."

Though this was mentioned before, it sparked Sonic's underlining interest all over again. It was impossible that Arbiters of all creatures knew how to use such things, and so kept it as an exotic trinket. An item of priceless value to them. And was very worth stealing.

"Once you are ready, open that door when the first horn blows." The Arbiter pointed with a crooked finger at the door opposite where they had come in, across the great length of the weapon hall. Double doors stood shut and ready. It gave Shadow a strangely ominous feel.

"One opponent." Sonic was saying as he admired the gallant set of weapons. "This is just too easy."

Shadow regarded the wolverine walk back towards the door they had come in through. Without even looking at them, he opened the door, and locked it shut behind him as he left. Not that a lock would do anything against the Ultimate Life Form, but he still felt worried. It could only be seen as normal. They were deep in enemy territory. Their mud would come off in the warmth of the underground cavern. And Sally would strangle them both once she found out what they were up to. In a way…Sonic was a prince. He would be the only one Sally would marry, making him future King at her side. So him…being here was a nightmare.

Sod the strangling. Sally would need a rocket launcher to punish them with.

"Ya picked yet, Shades?"

"No. Not quite. Come here."

Sonic had to look at him twice. "You want me, to come over_ towards_ you?"

Shaking his head angrily, he strode up to the little hedgehog and removed his robe. "Whatever happens, that star of yours has to remain hidden. You're as brown as shit, so the rest of you is safe." He started ripped the clothing in his powerful hands. The fabric stretched and tore. Sonic looked on, a little surprised.

"What in Dowa's name are you doing?"

"I'm not touching you further, so you're gonna have to tie it round instead." The material shredded, Shadow lifted up a fine bit of fabric and shoved it into Sonic's stomach. "Tie it around your chest, tight. You won't be fighting, but at least it gives us one less thing to worry about."

"They won't know any different."

"Oh yes they will. They'll think you're a cursed warlock or something."

"All you do is worry. You never used to be this bad."

"I didn't have a baby to look after before."

He grabbed the bit of fabric and proceeded to wrap it around his dazzling sternum, screwing the knot up tight like a tourniquet once he was once. "Now it looks like I'm wearing a bra top. Nice going, Shades."

"It looks good on you." He turned away, attention now on the weaponry. He went straight over to the table holding the revolvers. Having ample knowledge of them, he touched the first one he saw. A Scaxon05. It was a heavy, reassuring weight in his hands, but when he opened up the barrel to see the bullets, he found that it only contained one loaded bullet that had rusted over. He began looking through all of them, finding much the same thing. All the guns held dud bullets.

The horn blew. A low, booming thing that made the weapons shiver in shrilling aches from their hooks. It was time.

Grabbing an axe, even if he might not need it, Shadow walked quickly towards the double doors. They opened on their own accord. Arbiters by the hundreds glorified every side. The whole ensuing chamber beyond the barracks was full of them. The air stank of ale and blood. There were pens all leading to a giant oval clearing in the centre of all this fray. The trail was animal gladiator fighting.

"Wow." Sonic said at his back, struggling to keep up and making a rather good job of it, "this is so cool!"

"Shut your face." Shadow snapped back, less than happy. The Arbiters hemmed them in, shutting Shadow and Sonic is separate pens. It was so easily done that Shadow barely felt the converging of positions and the separation. He was amongst strange, dirty vermin and he didn't like it. Flies had somehow got down here, and buzzed through the air, fat on gizzards and blood. Gore marked almost all of the sand in the oval centre where the animals fought, young or old. Though the centre wasn't very big in itself, it still served its purpose, much like a brawler's ring sometimes found behind pubs.

So this was how you purchased Arbiter honor? More butchery by decimating another? No wonder the young killed so readily, if they had to go through this trial first.

Shadow was pushed on from behind in the confusion of hot sweat and greasy blood. The pen gate opened and before he knew it he was on the rim of the oval. Boots on soiled sand where animals urinated in fear or just plain bled to death.

The pen on the other side opened. A mean looking jaguar, part of the dreaded cougar family, stepped into the sand with the firm affinity of confidence. He must have entered the arena and left it again many, many times.

Unfair against the young and untested? Certainly. These were the pirates of Sonic's world. The mean, the greedy and who believed in war gods and overlanders. And Shadow was right in the thick of it. As always. First the Waylands, then winter, now here.

"Thanks, Sonic." He muttered angrily, gripping his axe handle tight.

The jaguar was a large, full grown male that wore no armor. Only a red sash with the Eggman logo bright and fresh on his forehead. His thick tail lashed excitably at his rear, heavy hind legs making short work of the distance as he circled Shadow, holding a stalwart morning star in one muscular paw. This beast was twice Sally's height and looked very formidable for a normal Mobian.

"Oooh, a hedgehog!" Spluttered the jaguar from salivating jaws, "haven't tasted one for years. I can't wait!"

"I hear you milk plainlore cows from their tits because you love milk so much." Shadow circled the giant cat with his own precise steps, watching every breath the Arbiter made. "If I were you, I'd leave the stage now. Then you'll only be humiliated a little."

The cat snorted, heavy neck swaying between his hoary chin and collarbone. "Come at me, harkla!"

The horn blew. The sand was thrown up between them as Shadow blasted towards like the cat like a ram. The jaguar made the predicable first swipe with his morning star; desperate to get the first hit in. The roar of the crowd became a deafening cyclone, baying them on. Pleading for blood.

Shadow ducked beneath the cat, avoiding the first impact as the bludgeon came down, trying to find and crush bone. His boots kept up great groves in the swirling sand. The axe was raised. The jaguar turned, back foot slashing outward to catch Shadow in the belly. With inhuman reflexes, Shadow burst to the side and threw his axe at the beast while he still had his leg raised. Unbalanced. The axe connected with the Arbiter's shoulder, iron blade slamming into fur and flesh.

"Gor!" Roared the cat, the hurt making him reflexively smash a fist out to catch Shadow's jaw.

Smiling teasingly, the elder rolled under the first and curled into his ball. With one great blast of fermented speed, his spines slashed, cut and tore into the jaguar. The morning star was dropped, dripping with blood.

Shadow leapt upward from his own thrust, almost hitting the ceiling of the arena before coming back down. He uncurled before he hit the ground, ensuring that he landed on his feet like a deadly ballerina. Perfectly balanced and erect. The jaguar meanwhile was less fortunate. Face spurting with blood, left hand torn from the wrist; he hobbled to the sand like a beggar, screaming in his own growing pool of blood. The Arbiters blew the horn, signaling the end of the battle. The jaguar was reprieved. If only for his life. For his honor would be gone forever.

The defeated ushered out; the crowd had become rather silent. They looked at Shadow in bemused abhorrence. A hedgehog, a harkla…defeating an Arbiter?

They began to whisper. Unkind words. Sinister gossip. Billions of beady, ireful eyes rested on Shadow like one giant, angry mob.

"I passed the trial!" Shadow hollered deeply, huskily into their disapproving faces, "I am granted honor! I am Captain Doublekill! Show us to your High Lords!" He whirled about the sand, trying to find someone in charge, someone who would listen. His bloodied axe lay still available on the floor, a sour reminder of what he had done. And Sonic had watched him decapitate a fellow Mobian so easily. What was he thinking right now?

A few, loud claps broke the suffocating silence. Shadow snapped to the sound at once, his predatory reflexes all but rallied up.

"Very good, very good." It was Hura from the throng of the displeased crowd. He stopped his clapping but a mock smile still remained on his thin, scrawny face. "You have passed, Captain. Admirable. Surprising. I like that in an Arbiter. You are to meet the High Lords. However, it isn't quite over."

"Yes it is!" Shadow said crossly, not caring if he was overstepping Hura's authority. "You said one opponent!"

"Ah yes! For each of you! Are you forgetting something? Your friend has to fight too."

The horror was true and bitter. The nightmare wasn't over. Shadow couldn't wake from it.

He glanced over at his companion who was still in his pen. And he had no weapon. Sonic dauntlessly never used a weapon. It was below him.

_I could take them all._ Shadow thought. _Even without an emerald I could hurt a lot of them. But they'd be more guards to come from above, and we'd be trapped. Sonic would be butchered if I so much as try anything._

Alone against a thousand.

_Got to think of a plan! A way out of this mess!_

Numb and disconcerted, Shadow was pulled back towards his own pen whereas Sonic was promptly thrown out of his. Too weak to gain balance from being propelled forwards so suddenly, he tripped and scuffled into the sand of the arena, slamming his knee onto the floor.

"This is not my day." Sonic mumbled to himself, glancing at the many faces staring back. "Yeah. Hi all!"


	5. The fastest Thing Alive: Is Me

**Chapter 5: The fastest Thing Alive: Is Me**

_Shades... One day you will fill my gap. You will become the new hero. You are already the fastest thing alive..._  
><em>Keep Mobius safe. Always put others first. Act quickly. Sense another's sadness, gain their trust. And just be there for them.'<em>  
><em>- Sonic, Panacea<em>

The hedgehog with the bra top wobbled to his feet, grinning despite himself. Sand had got into his left ear already, scuffed knee starting to bleed dark, berry blood. This was not what he had intentioned. Maybe Tails had been right all along. This wasn't the type of adventure he needed right now. It was a pity, because if he had been stronger, he would have loved this.

Shadow gripped the wooden cage of the pen, eyes wide, mouth open wider. "I'll handle it." Sonic mouthed to him in a little croaky whisper over the harsh cheering of the crowd whose excitement had just been reignited.

Some of them were banging their frothy cups of beer on the benches, ignorant of the bubbly mess they were making. "Fight, fight, fight, fight!" The chants went, up, up and down the rows of seated pirates.

It took a good few moments for Sonic to full straighten himself out. He looked eagerly out across the gate that would usher in his personal comrade in battle. He felt about as excited at the crowd thirsting for his blood. The sound of clapping, chanting, and roaring further enraptured the air, electrifying it, and making Sonic want to blast on his speed and never stop until he met an ocean. His grin sharpened.

As he waited, Sonic's glistening green eyes swung back across to the gate again. It started to crack open on its oily gears. He half expected to see Outcast arriving from the darkness, a tomahawk in each paw. That would have been useful. That weasel had known where Robotnik was. Could still know…

_I have to find that weasel…._

The disappointment was heavy. The known, crafty weasel did not come towards him from the maw of the yawning gate. A very young hyena approached him from the other side of the arena with a long, tapered whip with a stone tied to the end of it. The creature's mantle of hair was a mohawk from its ears and down its grisly neck to its shoulder blades. Its coat was a light, dusty brown, its spots deep and black like the jaguar. Its teeth lurched from its hungry mouth like bent claws while drool dribbled from their points and down its muzzle. Sonic judged the animal to be no older than ten summers old; a fresh wannabe Arbiter looking to prove himself.

The beast's inexperience was Sonic's only leverage.

Narrowing his eyes, the fur on his neck standing on end, including the fur on his tail despite the mud making this harder for him to bristle out, Sonic began to sidestep laconically against the sides of the arena, focus never once being lost on his adversary. However, despite the baleful cheers wailing up and down the rows of blood incensed animals, he imagined Robotnik grinning at him in the crowd, unseen and unheard by everyone else. Robotnik's eyes were on his, and a thick, pleased smile stretched across his satisfied face while he held a paper cup in one hand full of fizzy drink that spilled down the sides in bright green streaks.

'_Look at yourself! Look at what you've become! Is this what you really wanted? You weak, putrid thing! I shall continue to laugh at your puny efforts, your fetid squandering! I will haunt you! My mark is on you and it shall remain. Fight Sonic. Fight and show me what you still have, if anything.'_

The hollers from the crowd increased. Robotnik had gone, back into the air as if he had never been, however his words still left a faint miasma of wintry doubt.

Sonic felt the sturdy sand under his boots. The sultry warmth of the air. He growled in the back of his throat and was duly unable to wipe away his stupid grin.

The horn blew.

The hyena came at an angle, whip preceding him as he flecked the air with it, the stone slamming into sand. Sonic fled out the way, exposing his tiny canines like a feral cat as he leapt and scattered away.

"Give him a weapon!" Shadow barked at the crowd, at anybody with enough sense to listen. "This isn't fair! Give him a weapon!"

Someone heard. Hura rose to the occasion and climbed over Shadow's pen to throw a clean, virgin sword into the arena.

Sonic ran to one side of the pit to the other, back tingling every time he felt the whip snap through the air right behind his ears, briefly followed by the club of the stone as it whacked against the sand or the sides of the tall walls circling the pit.

Weak and out of breath, he jarred to a sudden stop, bloodied knee catching the sand again as he fell.

The drop was too sudden for the hyena. Not used to chasing small, fast prey, the young pirate swung his whip too short and ended up catching his own left sandaled foot with it. With a howl he crashed into the offending wall head first.

The sword had clattered to the sand, its steel length shining in a steady, cold rapture. Sonic rose, looking at it grimly.

"Use it!" Shadow hollered and bellowed against the cheering banter of the on looking sick-fucks, "Use it, now! Skewer that goat! Or I will be putting milk in your tea in future, you infidel!"

The hyena was getting up, shaking his thick, heavy head fiercely to rid himself of the rattling dizziness while his claws raked at the sand as he rose against the wall, clubbed foot bleeding and turning the tip of his sandal pink.

Sonic approached the shining sword and stood shivering over it. He took more notice of his alabaster reflection than the actual object itself. When he saw himself staring back, he blanched, swearing that he could see snowfall there…just of reach.

"Use it!" Shadow was screaming desperately. He wanted to help Sonic, and could... but he too wanted to see what would - what _could_ happen, and if this confrontation would do some good for Blue...

The scenery was suddenly ripped away, spoiled into red and yellow colors of utter dismay. The voices and barking chants were distorted, wavering on the edge of clarity while he felt pressed into a hot bubble. The hit had been a hard one, enough to send Sonic several meters across the sand pit, only to land roughly in a sprawl of limbs that did not know their place. He coughed in agonizing spurts. The world was spinning slowly. Black spots blinked and wobbled into his vision in little annoying dots. He saw flat emptiness filled with stars, stars in an ebony sky he had loved all his life to see from atop the hill in old Knothole.

"You do not contemplate swords! You use them!" Shadow's ranting and raving in the pit was distinctly heard over the crowd; their cheers grappling together in his frothy darkness. The only reason Shadow hadn't come to help him yet was because of the ensuing chaos it would bring. And maybe…just maybe he was hoping Sonic would have a chance despite how bad things looked.

The hyena lumbered forwards, his earlier ferocious energy gone, replaced with lazy casual indifference now that he realized how easy to defeat his opponent had become. In one hand he carried the whip. In the other was Sonic's offered sword now in enemy hands. Arbiters of any class or rank never fought fairly. The hyena carried both weapons with satisfied pride.

Seeing as how the little harkla wasn't getting up, the hyena kneeled down on one leg, smiling heartlessly. "Pathetic spiny pig. You are the dumbest thing I have ever met except for the fish I have for my supper!" His muzzle yawned wide, displaying his yellow, thick teeth in rancor. Then he deduced something. Sonic watched realization take hold in the beast's eyes while his nose sniffing at his muddy coat. It took but seconds for it to sink in. The hyena rose and looked at the senior officers standing rigidly at the apex of the crowd on a standing platform.

"You give me a sick animal!" Gibbered the hyena in anger at them. "This is not honor! I request another! This harkla is not worthy for my title for which I am to win!"

The hyena gave a surprised jolt and his cry ruptured the air, causing many of the sober chanters to stop. Sonic had gathered a boost of determined strength and ripped into the hyena's back with a whiplash of his own. His spin attack. Like Shadow's earlier go at the jaguar, Sonic's hardened quills made nice work of flesh when there were no robots to shred through. Yapping and screaming in wolfish hyena tongue, the young pirate fell to the sandy floor, crimson liquid racing down the fire from the back.

Momentum ended, Sonic stood behind the hyena, dusting his hands together. "Never underestimate who you face." He said with a sneaky smile. He did not raise his eyes to see Shadow hide his face in his hands.

"You little bitch!" The hyena turned sharply, upper heel rising. It caught Sonic's chest and he snapped backwards, feet backpedaling awkwardly. Before he had time to look up to anticipate the next attack, the young warrior was already on top of him like an excited lover. The sword came down, seeking flesh to destroy. Sonic landed bodily on the floor, rolling out of reach just in time. The hyena was so furious that he drove the sword in too hard, and got wedged in the thick sand of the pit. But matter it did not. Whip in paw, the hyena slashed it into Sonic, the stone connecting sharply with his hip. The splitting crack of bone drilled into his ears. Sonic choked from the resounding pain that started slow at first, and then grew like thirsty fire. Soon his whole leg was screaming in hot, mortal agony. The sharp reality, the _remembrance _of the pain and being locked on a pasha cart had always been within a hand's reach of a memory he had tried to shut off, shut _out_. He would wake up in the middle of the night from a blinding dream of sorrow, snowflakes and fiery agony. The memories would hound him thereafter like a bad taste, and no matter what he did, he could not wash the poison from his mind. He would go so far as to gripping the bed sheets for dear life, thinking that the night would never end, as he had thought before in a tent while the blizzard winds lamented with a nasty sickness strangling his life. Tails would be patient in these moments, comforting him despite his profound panics. Confessing he had a problem of any sort, either to a friend or psychotherapist, was too much hard work.

"For your cowardly attack," the pirate slobbered angrily, "this is your reward." Bringing the slick, limp whip forwards, he started to wind the thick length of it around Sonic's throat. The hedgehog was too driven by pain to so much as struggle. The entire side of his damaged his hip had gone numb.

The cord tightened as the hyena ran taught both ends. Air was cruelly, woefully stolen as his windpipe was being crushed. Only then did his legs start to kick out in futile distress.

Shadow shouldered into the hyena, not only causing the beast to lose complete balance but to fall heavily into the sand. "Sonic, we're leaving." He started undoing the cord.

He tried to croak, the pressure still fresh on his throat. His lungs took in air in short, panicky gulps. "The emerald… what took…"

"Screw the emerald. It's not worth our lives. And what took me so long? I was killing the ones in my pen! Now get up."

The hyena burst upward, teeth out, eyes blazing black. A portrait of a nightmare. Shadow paid it one glance before opening up his fist. A shower of golden spears exploded from his palm, causing the hyena to hurtle backwards. The watching Arbiters who weren't stone dead drunk came to attack them with whatever weapon they owned, or the mugs they carried. Standing protectively over Sonic, Shadow lashed out at each and every one without moving once. The elder knew that Sonic was stuck and could not move. If Shadow was forced away, he was leaving the blue blur to defend himself.

"Take that, you pile of shit!" Another blast of golden energy lanced out, spearing a fox through the mouth. He was launched into a table, spilling wine onto the sleeping drunks.

There were so many. Two officers dispersed from the fight and ran to call for backup. Once that happened, the entire city would come down upon them like an avalanche. They could not stay and fight.

He had to leave Sonic.

Acting fast, thinking even quicker, he jumped from the sandy arena and onto the rail of the pen for leverage. It was high enough and his body balanced perfectly, something Sonic used to be able to do.

He looked to the ceiling as herds of Arbiters came down from their benches, some still wielding beer mugs as their weapons. Paying them no heed, Shadow calculated the distance to the ceiling and the energy required to cross the gap. Bringing his elbow back, he channeled the mystical forces of the emerald close by and felt it wrap securely around his body like a warm, tingling blanket. At the sight of him glowing red, the bandits stopped in their eager, enthralled approach and looked on in growing fear and hysteria. Magic was not their belief, and used weaponry. Magic was the thing of evil.

Shadow stretched his arm upward violently, shooting forth a plume of marvelous red that made the entire chamber reflect its scarlet luminosity. Sonic blinked at it from the floor, smiling despite himself._ We can get out from above. He's thinking like me._

The red ball of gloating power hit into the ceiling like an angry cannon ball. The shock reverberated through the air and into the chamber, causing cracks to slice across walls, and rubble to fall from above. However, the rude blast had chiseled a way through the thick ceiling of cold stone, soil and roots, allowing a stream of free sunshine to perforate through.

Shadow jumped into the pit, disregarding the reactions of their enemies as some fled, looking for exits and howling for help. The floor jittered with uncouth vibrations. Wine bottles fell from the shelves. The walls began to shift.

"Trust me." Shadow collected Sonic's light weight into his arms, for once his own storm masking Sonic's_ too_ _fragile_ heartbeats. And for this he was undeniably grateful.

"Why? What…?"

Shadow aimed, and then threw Sonic upward in one powerful swing. With perfect precision and volatile strength born from the Ultimate Life Form, Sonic slipped straight through very neatly. Only then did Shadow launch himself upward, warping on the earth above, knowing that Sonic could not be warped with him. And thus, standing in the thin grass in the full sunlight, he waited to catch the blue blur who was making his return journey to the ground. "Damn. Still had five seconds to spare. I'm good."

Sonic yelled once, knowing that he would be feeling the eminent impact when he hit the earth when he instead fell into a strong pair of awaiting arms. He was no longer soaring distastefully through air like a broken bird. He was safe. Dazed, but safe.

He looked up at Shadow's stern countenance in prestigious disconcertion. "Well," he swallowed, "that's one way of doing it. I swear you're stealing my tricks."

"Someone has to replace you until you're strong again."

"_Replace_ is such a harsh word, dear!"

Shadow looked about him. A long, winding alarm sounded across the grounds like a siren. It was calling the Arbiters to battle. And they were knee-deep in their city. All around them was run-down shacks, the temple no more than nine clicks away. They were coming.

And something else, a whirring engine. The spinning blades of a strong rotor.

"Tails!" Sonic quipped happily in his arms.

"Hold on! We'll catch up to him." But Tails needed to land. That required space. And time. With Arbiters after them, fulfilling those requirements would take awhile.

Pressing Sonic tight as much as it pained him, he sprinted off, not quite sure where he was going. He didn't know these strange lands like Sonic did. So he had a lot to learn in this respect.

"Go left." Sonic kindly offered as the hot, heavy sounds of the plane roared from above the numerous tree tops as Shadow sped insanely from the city. But the town was large, and accosted many guard posts. As Shadow approached, the head guards lay down a vast electric net to stop their escape.

Putting Sonic down on the stone paving slabs, Shadow leapt to the attack and threw himself bodily upon the heavy wolverine laying down the net. But he didn't take the beast down. The Arbiter, well trained in any situation, turned and elbowed Shadow in the stomach. At once the Ultimate Life Form countered, barely feeling the hit, and dug his sharp canine teeth into thick fat and fur hard enough for the warrior to cry out. Shadow then kicked him down.

"Chaos Spear!" Glittering, lethal gold light peeled out of the sky and jabbed the foxes and wolves at the post behind him, and thus splitting the offending net in half.

"GET THEM!" Screamed an old bear. Hundreds of brutal Arbiters with every weapon ever made came at them like a rushing tide from behind. Lazer bullets streamed through the air like silver hot rain.

"Cunts!" Shadow spun away from the post to confront them. An eagle dropped from the sky and landed on his side and they both fell into vines and branches. Shadow bucked as soon as he landed in a gust of leaves but his feet only hit the metal armor on the bird's chest.

"Awaak you die!" It clawed at him, its wings and feathers flapping about him like some mad black wind. A loose bolt of lazer fire struck him neatly in his arm.

"Fuck you! Jesus!" He swung his arm upwards and a lather of red energy blew the bird off him.

"Shades!"

Sweat running into his eyes he stood up and rubbed at one corner of his mouth. Sonic came limping over. "I'm fine." The elder answered for him, sensing the question before it even left Sonic's lips. "Let's go." He gathered the hedgehog into his arms. As he retreated, arrows zipped over his head and a morning star thwacked deep into a tree just above his ear. Lazer fire poured around them in savage, nightmarish bursts that set anything it touched into heady, gluttonous flames.

They could hear the plane leave as it went to circle round.

"These pirates can't even aim at statues!" Sonic took note of their pursuit by looking over Shadow's shoulder, ears being blown forwards by the velocity of the wind as his protector sped on. "Holy Dowa I forgot how stupid they all are! Empire indeed!"

The sounds of the mob were dimmer now. Then the elder plunged into the safety of deep woodland where only the star of Sonic's life shone through. And where Tails would not be able to see them.

Shadow jumped expertly over fallen logs and tussled up rivers of mud and rotting leaves. The reek of dirt, stagnant water and fungi was strong here. Sonic relaxed in Shadow's hold, sure that they were safe now. "You could have fought against them," he said in the wind, "gone and grabbed that emerald."

"I am _not_ arguing with you. There's always tomorrow. Besides, we learned what we wanted. We know where they are, and we know how they fight and their numbers. This reconnaissance was successful."

The trees covered their regression like shutting curtains. They needed to head back into the open again, let Tails see them, and then hitch a ride home.

In a hazed dash to escape with invalid in tow, he almost couldn't break in time as he came up to a steep edge of the woodland. He skidded to a frantic halt, his boots creating long skid marks all the way to the edge of the hill. Below the cliff was a grand, large river. Young Escot River as it travelled through the western border to the south. Here the current was faster, the banks steep. And more grimacing woodland on the other side.

He tried to see beyond, but could not perceive a bridge or a safe way across unless he ran along to find something better.

He glared back at the gushing, murmuring river with his disapproving red eyes. Sonic followed his gaze downward. "Urm, shouldn't you keep running along the hill?"

"I don't know this valley. The woodland is their territory filled with traps that might implicate me. To get away from them and so that they don't follow our tracks, we have got to take a little swim."

"No, Shades! No! Don't you dare!"

Shadow nodded adeptly at the roaring river, "It's easy. You just hold onto me and I'll swim down the river. It's a good escape. Just don't panic and you'll be fine."

"No, please they must be some other way! We…we can reroute another way through this place! We can run quicker than any scout and then we can hide! Dowa…please not the water!"

Shadow chose to ignore the hog's mew of distaste. "You'll be fine. At least I've done something worthwhile and learned to fucking swim! What do you do aside from licking yourself furless?"

"Aw come on! You know I have to look good in every battle!"

The cry and roar of the Arbiters could be heard as they crashed through the forest as they closed the distance. They had already lost too much time. Arbiters were fast too, and were tracking his footprints with ease.

"But Shades…the current!"

Shadow jumped.

Sonic screamed.

With a mighty crash water thundered over them like the weight of a thousand rocks. The cold seethed into their fur like blades of ice.

Sonic bucked and lashed out like a wild, rabid animal, panicking. Shadow held him tight and kicked his way up to the shining surface. His head broke through the water and sunlight dappled gently over his red markings and comely black fur as the mud departed from his body in foggy waves. He held Sonic's head above the surface with difficulty as the hedgehog scrabbled and clawed against him, coughing and spluttering. Shadow balefully remarked, "At least you're not dirty anymore. You're blue."

"Get me out!" Sonic snorted and coughed, "Please! Get me out! I can't swim! Help me!"

"Stop! Stop it! You're hurting your hip! I've got you! I've got you!"

Still he kicked and cried, utterly hysterical. He had never seen Sonic like this before. Never, ever truly afraid like this. It went against reason, against sense and logic. Sonic, the bravest creature in the world, was reduced to utter, deathly panic in mere water.

Twice Shadow almost lost him, his gloves slipping in the water as Sonic writhed and choked. He kept his head above the curdling surface. One swallow of water, and Sonic would flail about afresh, crying and yelling. The Arbiters would hear him for sure.

With good, strong kicks of his back legs, Shadow propelled them along the easterly current and he swam along the narrow banks and steep muddy slopes on his back while he kept Sonic resting on his front. The going was easy and swift. As the current moved them, the shouts and voices of their pursers faded. But a deep tainted line of red trailed thickly behind them. Sonic had worsened the injury to his hip thanks to his useless flailing.

"Okay, Shades… this is too far… Oh…"

"No you won't die. Just keep your head above water, you dumb kitten."

With one arm braced around Sonic's back to keep him on his chest so that he wouldn't accidently slide off (he wasn't helping at all with the squirming) he swam further out into the river where it broadened and the banks drew further away. Wild cows who spoke only plainlore nodded their heavy heads up as they drifted by. The trees clawed above them like hungry vultures and the sun light grew dim.

Sonic went quiet. He lay, paralyzed on Shadow's chest, shivery and pupils diluted. His fingers were braced into Shadow's fur like little hooks.

After going a fair distance the river closed up again, allowing a narrow way through. The banks were lower and the reeds and thick pond plants twirled round Shadow's legs when his feet touched the pebbly floor.

_At last._

Able to walk through the murky shallows before the river hitched up again for even deeper depths, Shadow made it to land while holding a dripping hog. He must have swum a good two miles or so from the choking Arbiter woods. Sadly he could hear no plane engine. Tails was somewhere else, looking for them. Perhaps he too had not suspected them to jump so recklessly into a river? Then again, Shadow had led them to another forest. This one was thinner, not as many trees, but with plenty of flowers and herbs growing near and around the river. The ground was boggy and full of swamp grass. He could hear the common starlings sing their verses up in the chalky trees as the ashen sunlight began to warm their coats now that their true colors had been revealed.

He set Sonic down once they were clear of the bank, hoping that the sight of the river would not restart his fear of water anew. Then he undid the shred of clothing hiding the star. It blanched into his eyes like a beacon. While the blue wonder hacked out the water from his lungs, Shadow looked back along the river. If the Arbiters were wise enough they'd clamber into the river too and chase them down. He hoped their guns would get wet.

"Are you okay now, Sonic?"

Still coughing up water, he shook his head, shivering from the sodden cold. His fur was flat and shiny. "I am n-now. Please don't ever do that again! You _have_ to p-promise me!"

They were still in a big, unknown forest. Without Hura as a guide they were rather lost.

"North is that way I think," Shadow said, pointing so. "And east is on our left side. So we need to change course and go down the hills that stretch below this belt of trees. Are you up for that?"

"Of course. And we know where their Empire is. It isn't that great, is it?"

"It's the factory I don't like. They're hiding something. And their population must have been around three hundred. They may not be clever but after what you've learned today, they're dangerous. You're lucky I hid your star. It's such a giveaway.

"Hey, I can't just take it off like a sticker ya know."

Shadow rolled his eyes and waved him off dismissively. "Stop bitching and let's go."

"Shades…how fast can you run?"

"Why?" He stepped back a little and shook the wet from his fur. Sonic shielded his face with his hand to avoid the offending water spray splashing his face. But Sonic never persuaded the topic. Because they both knew. Had all along during the trek to meet with Panacea. Shadow was the new leader of freedom. He had blasted through those trees at unimaginable speeds in just boots. With Sonic no longer centre stage, Shadow was the fastest thing alive. And later they would find that this changed everything. The future was dark indeed for both Hero and Messenger.

* * *

><p><strong>TBC<strong>


	6. Introductions

**Dib07: **Another hectic week has passed me by! Yay! Here is the latest chapter of Star Breaker, and I hope you are all enjoying it so far, and that with each chapter that comes, it gets that little more exciting, strange, suspenseful and above all, with plenty of action! Here's to you all that have reviewed and loved this story thus far and have always given me such a boost in support and inspiration. May you all keep writing, dreaming and being creative! A personal thank you to pokemonpuck too, for giving me that little heads-up! You have an important job my friend, to nudge this forgetful author every so often where I have failed, and you've been so loyal! I shake you by the hand, so here's to you pokemonpuck, and to all my awesome readers that keep me on course and don't let me stray. Thank you!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 6: Introductions<strong>

'_Thy glades forlorn confess the tyrant's _

_Here, as I take my solitary rounds,_

_Amidst thy tangling walks and ruined grounds.'_

_Oliver Goldsmith - A Deserted Village_

They had to get out of the woods and signal for Tails. Go to a place suitable for a plane to land, and hoping the sound would not bring their pursuers back on their trail. With Sonic telling Shadow which ways to go, Shadow was taken to rocky fissures of land and old gorges that scared the green hills like hollow snakes. The trees thinned until they were fully out of the forest.

The steep descend upon the barren hills wasn't easy for Shadow. Sonic used to neatly glide down such things like a bird and was at the bottom in no time, even without the immense grip of his scarlet sneakers. Shadow had more difficulty. He had never liked climbing. Climbing he said, was what hedgehogs could not do.

Using his claws from the only free hand that he had, he slipped several times and his slow progress was really starting to show when the sun started to drift to its rest in the western mountains.

After many more accidents, cuts and bruises, Shadow made it down to the low valleys after twisting his way down the chalky hills and stony slopes when the evening drew in. The zeal of the sun twinkled one last time, then bled away into the wild mountains and was gone. Sonic's strong star lit their way forward and they were able to go on further before calling it quits and resting near a shallow pool in a quiet woodland area away from the main body of the Arbiter jungle. But in such darkness, Sonic's little star was truly blinding.

"How does Princess Sally put up with that?" Shadow asked sulkily while he undid his robust boots and massaged his cold, wet toes in the unnatural light of his star.

"I dunno. Bedcovers must hide it I suppose. Should I cover it up?"

"Not yet. How's your hip?"

"Ah, it's… it's fine."

"Are you still bleeding?"

"Just a little."

Shadow came over in the crispy white light and placed his hands upon his pelvis. His hip had plainly been struck hard. Blood crisped the edges of impacted flesh. When Shadow went to gently examine it, he felt bone move in places that it shouldn't be able to. Sonic flinched, hissing. "Don't touch it!"

"Fool, sit still. I can knead the bones back together."

"You…you can?"

"Through the power of chaos, I can heal you, but only because of my growing bond with your unique energies. I can do this with no other creature. But I am young at this. Also, this will hurt as I reconnect the tissues and bone. You have to sit still for this; otherwise what I'll try won't be successful. I did this for your ribcage..sort of… when I got you out of Panacea's caves…"

Sonic nodded, ears perked for the sounds of a plane, but there was nothing. Was it too dark now for the kitson to keep up the search?

To keep himself from scattering away on instinct, Sonic slumped to the floor, stomach on the dusty ground. He felt Shadow's cold gloved fingers spread themselves over his hot, inflamed wound. He unconsciously jerked.

To help maybe, Shadow reached forward with his other hand and locked fingers around his scruff. "Don't move."

"Go for it."

A piercing cool touch started, like a small glowing orb of chilled ice. It started in the very centre of cracked and splintered bone. But then the cool orb grew, and the gelid contact that it wrought turned into burning ice. He squirmed. Shadow kept him down. Sometimes he could feel Shadow's mind enter him, like a fleeting ghost presiding over him in gentle company. The contact was a brief brush. A whisper. Nothing more, and nothing evasive. But it kept his mind off the blowing raw fire of ice splitting into his hip for sparing moments at a time. This was healing? _Healing?_ When it felt like someone was scooping around in his pelvis with a frozen knife?

He clamped his mouth shut, trying to remain strong. No pain could compare to what he felt in winter. But this too wasn't desirable. "Why does it h-hurt so bad, Shades?"

"Healing isn't a simple solution, hedgehog. Nothing is_ ever_ simple. That's why I never healed your broken ribs fully once we took you back home from the caves. The pain would have ruined you."

"I screwed up, huh?" Sonic asked lightly, gently.

"We all screw up. The gladiator fighting pits are something I have never seen or knew they existed. We are still learning."

Sonic screwed his eyes shut, feeling the hot flow of blood crawl down his leg. The overpowering orb, the centre of healing, or destruction as he liked to call it, suddenly faded and faded. The horrible cramps too dimmed with it, and the ice in his hip began to warm. He opened his eyes again and sat up. Shadow was sitting beside him as he released his scruff. His other hand was soppy with blood. But his hip sported no injury of any kind. It looked…normal. Tentatively, Sonic played his own hand on it and moved his hip. The pelvis bone moved accordingly. There was no pain and no crunch of ruptured bone. Only a soft scar that could barely be seen remained of where Shadow had closed up the gash from the impact.

"Shades…thank you. I trust you a lot more than you care to think."

"Do you now?" He sighed tiredly, easing his bloodied hand into the tawny grass.

"Why did you start connecting with me? Isn't that…dangerous?"

"I've saved your life aplenty doing it."

"But you can just…enter me just like that. I don't like it. I feel like every time you do it, it gets even easier for you. Remember Silver? He could do similar things but with physical objects. It's too powerful."

"Sonic, don't worry. I would never hurt you like that. Why in your right mind would you think like that?"

"As much as I admire you helping me and taking care of me, this connection has to end. The day might come when you have different opinions of me. I don't want you opening me up like a door."

"I thought you just said you trust…oh never mind."

Shadow was so offended that he just sat stiff and terse, thinking on how best to reply, and so didn't anyway. But in a way, Sonic was correct. Invading another without due permission had its wrongs. And so Shadow didn't speak to him for the rest of the night as they took repose in wild, rough country.

XXX

The next morning came like a sweet promise. Too tired to hear the bird calls and too sleepy to notice the change in light, they dozed. When Shadow finally woke up he smelled something on the faintest breeze. It smelled opulent and strange.

He sat on his haunches and listened for danger. They were safe and there was no scent of Arbiters on the wind. It was possible the animals had given up the chase or had gone the wrong way.

Sonic still lay sleeping. He stank of old blood. But it wasn't him he smelled.

Leaving the shelter of the little remote woodland he walked along a winding ridge that entered into an echoing ravine passed the hills they had to descend the day before. Deep alcoves littered the ravine walls, but none were deep enough to make caves. There were old rabbit holes here. Empty of course. And then that smell again, stronger. It left a tangy aftertaste, like a bitter alcohol solution. It burned his eyes. What the hell was it?

Then startled, he stopped. He knew what that smell was.

"Panacea…"

The caves…lost in some winter land nightmare, had that same smell. The dragon who gave the star to Sonic… It had reeked in that cave. Of the same unearthly stench.

He heard Sonic's approach. The healing session last night and endowed some strength into him even when none of them had eaten for over twelve hours.

"Shades…"

"Shhh!" He spared him a glare. Sonic looked back dazedly. "Why'd you follow me?" He whispered.

"Because I can smell it too."

Together, like timid rabbits, they exited the ravine and kept low behind wild shrubs, bushes and tall ant hills. After winding their way around a slight hill they came to the source of the pungent smell. A dead dragon, huge in size, lay on its side right before them. Flies thronged upon its body busily laying eggs. Its huge mouth seemed open in a yawn and the whites of its eyes showed through its slanted lids. Its silver claws were the size of tables. Its wings as long as old Knothole. And furrows of claw groves rung at the earth around it as if it had been struggling as it died.

Sonic went to approach it when Shadow snapped him back at once.

"What are you doing?" The blue hero cried.

"See that pool of fucking _draconia _around it?" Shadow irefully growled, "I don't trust it. If you touch it, what if that dragon's Panacea? What if that power inside you floods out?"

"It isn't Panacea!"

"How would you know, baka? You never saw it!" Shadow looked at him angrily. "You wait here."

"But…"

_Oh what's the use?_

Shadow pushed him back a final time for good measure before pulling away to look at the mammoth dragon corpse alone. Sonic crossed his arms and snarled.

The body stank almost as bad as the _draconia _blood. Flies and god knows what else buzzed around its dry mouth and along its glittering, pillar-like teeth. By the look and size of such a grand beast, Shadow assumed that it had to be an elder dragon. One that had lived over a thousand years.

Great bristly horns stood out proud and dead on its skull. Its face a mask of lifeless peace. There were no signs of a fight between another dragon. No gaping slash wounds. No tell-tale signs of fire or outright carnage.

He circled the great hulking body three times while Sonic sat a good distance away as instructed. The blood around it seemed to have come from nowhere. The dazzling color of the _draconia _itself was mystifying, beautiful and lustrous despite its toxic smell. It was hard to imagine this lifeblood was the very antidote for death and illness.

If this towering beast had died due to disease, exhaustion or old age, then why all the spilled blood?

"Can I come over now?" Sonic called angrily.

"No, you swine! Unless you fucking want the _draconia _to revert the magic spell of the star!"

"What proof do you have?"

_None!_

He circled it again. It was getting hotter in the day. More flies were coming from every orifice of hell. He approached the stinking body and waded in through the terrible dragon blood to get closer to it.

_This dragon had better be dead. _He thought sparingly. _Otherwise it'd be a fucking mouthful of a snack._

He waded up to its scaly yellow belly. Its scales were like polished metal - the very thing of nature that had sparked off Robotnik's insane inspiration for his robots all that time ago. And the skin behind the scales was at least several good inches thick.

"Gaw it stinks."

_Yep. Definitely dead._

He placed his hands and arms as far under its belly as he could go then gathered all of his strength and started to lift. The weight of it was immense - his legs started to shake. He was only able to lift a bit of its belly up. The rest of its underside was as long as a big boat's hull. There was just no way. But he saw what he suspected all along. Beneath it, just out of sight until he lifted it, was a hole in its stomach. And even now it dripped with more poisonous _draconia. _Something had drilled into it while it had still been alive and had killed it at once - or until the beast had stopped struggling as it died. For there were no teeth marks or any claws scratches. And whatever it was had chiseled through scales like they were paper.

"Who has the technology…" He stopped short and felt a little horrified.

Robotnik - the Doctor was dead. Sonic had seen to that even at the cost to himself. So who - who? The Arbiters? That sleazy lot? Did they have drillers? Could one of them pin down a ten-ton beast to make it hold still?

"Ludicrous…"

And why?

Dragons were going extinct. They used to rule the skies and slay anything and anyone. The dragons and forerunners waged war against one another for years and years, even when Mobius was still young and the mutations across all wildlife had only just begun. But of course the dragons lost and nearly perished. Aside from Panacea, Shadow had not seen any for as long as he could remember.

Arbiters couldn't slay these monsters. Nothing on Mobius could now with Doctor Robotnik gone.

Nothing.

Maybe it had died of old age after all and something had come along and sucked out its organs?

"To hell with it."

Shadow walked away and rejoined a sulky Sonic.

XXX

Elva was laughing. Her long, piercing giggling fits echoed down her halls and the sound even carried into the lab and bedrooms. Behind her on top of a desk glowing hotly in cylinder cases were three chaos emeralds. Red, purple and silver. In each case they sat on a small velvet cushion where their beauty seemed to gloat out like fallen stars. Stars that she hadn't even bothered to pluck. The Arbiters were doing it all for her.

She pushed her desk chair back and put down the paper documents, grinning smugly. Then she picked up her loyal hand mirror and fussed with her golden locks. On the floor was a new fur carpet. There was another one, even bigger in her bedroom and Lord Rathuier had just given her a fur purse. White of course. No other color she would stand for.

"Ugh I must change my hair." She hated her hair. It made her skin too pale. Why did Robotnik make her blonde in the first place? At least she was young and pretty. She was a little older than a teenager, despite having being out of the cryotube for almost a week. She assumed she had been growing in stasis for a good seventeen years, unless Robotnik had sped up the process some way or other.

"Hmm, I rather like the color black." She grinned and then laughed again.

A floating screen powered by a power core that could be found deep in the planet came up to her speedily. It made a distinct humming noise and its white rim and casing was so well polished it reflected the lights in the room.

"Lady Elva," it said in a computer generated voice, "the results are ready."

"Then tell me." She hissed, putting her mirror down and fixing the screen with eyes of impatience as if she were dealing with a live subject.

"The dragons you harvested have yielded great results. From the ircon suction weapon 6IH9 you harvested approx. seventy percent of usable, highly toxic _draconia _energy. The results show that the blood gives the dragon effective lift when going into flight and the fluid helps the ignition process combined with julte in the dragon's mouth to effuse fire."

"I couldn't give a rat's ass about that bullshit. Skip that part and tell me more!"

"Skipping - section 2. DRACONIA a highly lethal serum that though cannot cure a fatal injury or illness, can hold it dormant, tricking the mind and body. But it can be released again upon mere touch of the same element and release said injury/disease and renders its healing effect invalid."

Elva nodded thoughtfully.

The screen continued. "_Draconia _blood was used originally by the dragons to heal themselves. Since they are the element, they can rid themselves of any actual debilitating conditions and thus cannot be reversed again in the same way other species can when re-touched. Combined with the power of the chaos emeralds to boast its power and with project Shadow's DNA of immortal life, you will be immortal, Elva Robotnik. And no illness, injury nor age can ever touch you."

She smiled jovially. "Just what I wanted to hear. Now, what would be the best way to harness this energy in a weapon so that I can project it out in small doses like say - a bullet?"

"Calculating - in tiny quantities this can be done easily as long as direct touch with said energy is restricted."

"Good. Make it so."

The screen floated out the door.

"Lord Rathuier." She rose her voice sharply. Now reduced to a lowly servant with a bent back from bowing so much, the rat shuffled in, dripping with sweat already.

"Yes, my dear queen?"

"Bring me Shadow the hedgehog. And do it politely."

XXX

"I hate it when you scare me like that." Tails reached up and hugged him dearly. Sonic returned the embrace as hard as he could afford, eyes closed.

"I'm sorry, Tails. We didn't really learn a great deal, but we know where they are now. And that they are collecting the chaos emeralds."

"And they must bring innocent families into the pits to fight for entertainment," Shadow added, "and those who choose not to go, get slaughtered from where they stand. We've got a big problem on our hands, all right."

Tails didn't let go for some time. It was good to be reunited. It had only been a night and a day since they were fully separated, and this obviously proved too much for the fox.

Behind him the red biplane awaited their return trip home. After spotting them walk across open ground five miles from Escot River, Tails made a neat, if hurried landing. And the reunion was sealed.

"I lost you in the woods. The Arbiters tried to fire at me, but I was too far up." Tails explained into Sonic's shoulder, "during the night I had to land to save fuel. I was worried. I wouldn't go back home without you."

"Shadow saved me," Sonic tawdrily replied with a weak grin, "if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here. So it's time that he used his full potential."

"But Sonic!" The kitson protested, "The title is yours…"

Sonic let Tails go, ruffling up his mop of hair between his large ears before turning to Shadow. "I'll give Sally the go-ahead to commit you to it. You are a natural, Shadow. Just like me. The title is not given. You are born with it. You need to be trained by Sal and by Tails first. Then after you've finished, I'll give you my knowledge of Mobius. Once you learn everything I have to give, you will never get lost. You will never stray. You will be the protector of all."

Shadow nodded. He understood. The words the sick hero had whispered to him as he was running across the thin lake ice with Sonic in his arms had haunted him most strongly of all. The day when Knuckles had to stand-by with the pasha and cart. The day Sonic wanted Shadow to look after his son; and look after the world. To be; unbreakable.

XXX

The rich snow came thick and fast, clotting the sky and furling up the light of the sun. It was all…silent. The whole of the winter land was but a giant open tomb. He watched Sonic, like a lost lamb, limp through the snow of his own tomb. He trailed bloody footprints with each careful step. He fell, but he kept on getting up. Somehow. He needed to get somewhere… it was really important that he had to get there, but Shadow couldn't remember why.

The scenes changed. He was outside the cave of Panacea, holding the blue hero down as Sonic's fur darkened into polished black as his body attacked the star he was given.

Sally took Shadow's bloodied hands in hers. "I now pronounce you hero. You will look out for the world, and protect it. You are good, I know. Don't disappoint us. We're all counting on you, for this world is breaking, and we need someone to lift us into the light and to protect us from all things malefic and wrong. You will be our warrior, our symbol. Our guide and our heart. You will be my right arm and you will be the Council's actions. You will always represent justice."

He was back in Sally's room, out of the snow. He had a watch in one hand, ticking loudly in his ears. Knuckles' voice came out of nowhere, abrasive and cold; "_as long as I live, I don't ever want to do this again_."

Sonic was sitting alone with Tails. Shadow watched them; the watch still nestled in his right hand like he was waiting for a runner to time for a new record. But this runner before him wasn't going to run again.

When Shadow looked dismally at the watch, he saw that the clock face had no hands. Nothing. And still it ticked.

"Urgh!" Shadow sat up in bed and rubbed his sweaty temples in close, hard circles until his vision groped his room a bit better. He gulped and controlled his heavy, fast breathing until his lungs worked more normally. That was the worst nightmare he had had now for a good few months. He hadn't had any bad ones of Maria either. What the hell sparked it off so? The damn ticking was coming from his alarm clock stationed by the bed. He threw it away with a slap of his hand.

He turned the light on by his bed (he had brought down the battery powered device down from the Ark) and looked down at the Bible on his nightstand. No. Not tonight. He hated reading it sometimes.

He kneaded his temples deeply again. If he was not going to sleep, then a hot, big black coffee would help soothe the night terrors and perhaps he would read a book.

Shadow left his creaky bed and stared outside his little window. Princess Sally's cottage was right opposite. All their lights were switched off. It was very dark out there anyway. No one was awake except him, which made him feel very lonely. Sonic's house was way, way to the left almost swooning in cherry trees. The top bedroom light was on. Either Sonic was having a hard time sleeping himself, or his painful coughing was keeping him up…

To keep himself busy, Shadow thought back on the afternoon when they returned to Faux Forest after making sure they weren't being pursued. Now that Sonic knew where the Arbiter Empire was (a lot closer to home than first realized) the blue hedgehog nattered on and on how they should go straight in there and topple the factory. There simply wasn't enough of them to tackle such pirates. Shadow bet that even the baby Arbiters could kill.

"Then we go in, covert like," Sonic retorted, "and plant mines by that factory."

"What about the temple?"

"We scale it to the top and then set mines on it too!"

"Don't be dumb. That stone's old and thick. Blowing the roof off that thing won't make a fucking difference."

"Shades, since when did you start swearing so much?"

And that was how it ended.

But with Robotnik gone, what was the point? The factory was just there for morale purposes. The smoke coming out of it was someone probably cooking meat in its top store room. Who knew?

Mind aching with his past nightmare he decided going back to sleep wouldn't be good so he diligently put on his gloves and shoes and walked out through the door of his cottage in sublime strides. Fuck the coffee and the book.

Diamond light from the moon painted the trees close by in a forlorn shower of white and black sorrow. The toadstools and purple mushrooms brimmed in surreal dark undertones. Here Shadow felt more alive and real than he did during the day.

Using the moon to see ahead he wandered slowly through the sleeping landscape like a lost dreamer. The stones, rocks and little plateaus that gave rise over little ferns and streams washed him clean of any nightmares and troubles and soon he found himself idly scenting the flowers and enjoying his time alone.

He rested on a flat silver rock that was smooth to the touch and here he reposed. After some while, when the moon had moved closer to the lee of clouds in the starry heavens, he thought he saw a strange bright red light flickering in the darkness to the south. He stiffened upright at once but the light vanished back into darkness. Fires made natural reddish light. But that light had been more concentrated. More bright than any fire could create.

Curious, he jumped over a stream and continued forward in the vague direction of where he saw it. After a good few moments the same luminosity gripped the black recesses of the trees. A tiny shard of red. Then gone again.

Shadow quickened his pace, knowing full well that he could be heading into a trap. But the protector of Mobius – the newly titled hero, couldn't just turn away if there was some potential threat so close in Faux Forest. What if it was an odd signal for help? Or that a group of baka Arbiters had stumbled across a rare diamond that was shining unintentionally?

Shadow could take care of himself. He was proud to know that he was close to impossible to take down. Even by a dozen well-armed Arbiters. And even Robotnik struggled to obtain him. Nothing on this planet could effectively stop him. Not even chaos emeralds, since they could be channeled by his energy at his very whim.

Shadow stealthily made his approach. A tinge of oil was in the air. Badniks never patrolled this far out. Tails and Amy had seen to all of them.

The red light flared suddenly and then blinked into nothingness. He was closer.

He dashed through woodland ferns, bushes and puddles. Just as he had suspected, a lone Arbiter was walking along a worn footpath, his back to him. Shadow lunged into the beast, causing it to scream and crash into the floor. Swiftly, the hedgehog took his head in his hands and jerked its skull in a bone crunching twist. Breaking its neck in a moment.

At once Shadow leapt away again. The moonlight moved behind a veil of clouds and his vision was gone.

"Fire!" Shouted a voice.

Carnivores could see in the darkness. No matter how black it was.

Shadow tried to run and hide somewhere. He tripped over a stone and splashed into a muddy puddle. A tranquiller dart zoomed over his head.

He made to stand. The loose feeling of a metal net snapped on top of him like dragon's teeth. He struggled insanely against its toothy grip as he felt the net tighten ever more so. It was designed to snare its prey like a love-sick python.

Acrimonious red energy spewed off his fur like volcanic heat. It melted the metal wire at once and he clawed himself free. The moon bobbled slowly out of cloud cover and the carpet of the forest flooded back to his sight. Four Arbiters had surrounded him. They must have closed in while he was battling the net.

"Stop," said a white rat whose face was helmed and his paws protected by gauntlets, "we do not mean to fight."

"You twats!" Shadow glared at them all in turn and judged his exits and mad fight path. One of the Arbiters cornering him was a meek little badger. The weakest. Shadow would go straight for him first and rip him to shreds. Then he would be clear to go free or slaughter the rest.

"You are more powerful than we dared think. Everyone, drop your weapons."

At the white rat's command, all the Arbiters dropped their guns and spiky maces.

"How do I know there aren't more of you?" Shadow inquired slyly.

"You'll just have to trust us. We're here to deliver a message to you and that you then come with us."

"And if a refuse?" He scowled.

"If you refuse, we'll take other measures." The rat took something red out of his leather pouch. In the palm of his gauntlet was a glowing red orb. A power core that were deemed rarer than power rings. They were lucky finds indeed. "We know a lot about you, Shadow. That was how we were able to lure you. Hedgehogs are stupidly curious you see, despite some creatures shunning anything new and hiding. But not you."

"Get on with it, you bunch of liars!" Shadow scorned irately, "you know nothing about me!"

A new voice, not animal and not robot, floated up from seemingly heaven itself. "I'm afraid you are wrong on that part, my dear."

A screen whizzed slowly and gracefully amongst the animals and stilled them all at once. Even Shadow dropped his scowl and stepped back. A young woman with glossy gold hair and unusual pale blue eyes stared back at him from a moving real-time picture. This time it was nothing pre-recorded and the girl's eyes seemed to glisten with harmonious grace and comeliness.

"Hello, Shadow. My name is Elva."

Shadow stupidly gaped back.

She was beautiful!

"M-Maria? But you can't be! How do you know my name?"

The young girl shook her head at him through the slick, thin screen that barely looked strong enough to float about in the air several feet from his face. It was being held up by two tiny jets. Powered by what he didn't know.

"Shadow, I would like to see you in person." Said the girl. Her eyes never blinked. "I want to get to know you as a friend. I know you are used to tricks and such, but I do guarantee your safety. I promise that after you've seen me as a gesture of goodwill, you will be freed, even if you end up hating me. Agreed?"

Shadow gulped and fought to find his voice again. "What if I say no?"

"Then Shadow, I will be bitterly disappointed. But you are an animal of free will and I can understand that. Again there are no tricks. And no one will get hurt if you come to the Akankto Fort which I call Eolith."

_She must want something from me. _He summarized desperately.

_But - but she's just a girl!_

What could she do to him?

"All right," he whispered faintly, "I'll come. On one condition."

The pretty young woman raised her chin slightly in expectation. "Yes?"

"That you tell me everything."

"Of what?" Her voice tinkled with laughter.

"Of you."


	7. Mine Angel

**Dib07:** I am late, again! I was supposed to have uploaded this chapter last week, but as usual I had too much on my plate. Sorry for the wait, but as I had promised here is the latest instalment. A special dedication to Espionage247 who always makes me smile and is so honest and uplifting in feedback! I look at your reviews, Espionage, and because of your support I feel blessed, because you are enjoying this story, as I want every reader too, and you well, just make me feel special! So thank you!

**Chapter 7: Mine Angel**

_'When thy beauty appears_

_In its graces and airs,_

_All bright as an angel new dropped from the sky._

_At a distance I gaze and am awed by my fears,_

_So strangely you dazzle my eye.'_

_Thomas Parnell - Song_

He was so physically exhausted that he had fallen asleep in Tail's plane on the way back home. He was woken by the creak of the cockpit and sudden shut down of the rattling engine that had soothed him into thick dreams. Giggling fitfully because of how droopy and drunk he must have appeared to be, Tails had chuckled all the way as he led and half carried him back to their home. It used to be Sonic's. But Tails had abandoned staying at his place to live with Sonic. It was an unspoken decision. Sonic knew that the winter had changed Tails, for better or worse. The fox was now insecure, stupidly worried. Scared at times if he couldn't find Sonic straight away in five seconds. And now, his young foster brother had gone straight back to his old habits. Of sleeping with him like he did when he was very little. This reverse in progress was mildly shocking, and Sonic assumed it to be only temporary. But this hadn't been so. Tails remained as insecure as ever. In fact, it was getting progressively worse and it became deeply worrying.

He cracked his green eyes open, feeling arms locked around his thin middle. He felt very warm – sternum especially. Not overly hot, but just starting to get mildly uncomfortable. He saw orange fuzz in his face and smelt his brother's scent of wood chippings and open air. As he woke in slow, sleepy stages, he realized in aghast dismay that Tail's head was resting on his chest. On the star. Touching him. Actually touching him there. _Shadow can't stomach me from a distance of five to three feet, yet here is Tails, snuggling up to me without a care in the world. What's his secret? Even I wouldn't do that to myself. I don't like being touched there either. Feels wrong…_

"You guided me into bed, Tails? And decided to sleep with me? Crazy lil' guy…" He yawned loudly, tears dribbling out the corners of his eyes. Mostly early in the morning before his body had full woken, he would choke out coughs from the old irritation in his lungs of the pneumonia he had almost completely come down with on top of his heart condition. "Time for breakfast." He went to rise, bringing a leg forward, elbow sinking into his pillow. Still in sleep, Tails groaned out and clutched him tighter, bringing Sonic's meek progress back down into bed again. "Uh…Tails? Come on now. You need to let go, bud." And let go of my chest!

There came a fast, violent knock on his door that became a barrage. "Sonic! You in there? Hello?"

Sonic jerked upright and then looked over at the little red clock over the mirror opposite his bed. He had slept in.

"You locked the door?" Came the next shout as they tried the handle, but to no avail. "Sonic, open the door! Now!"

Tails sat up, grabbing the bed sheets in fear as his eyes wildly sought for the commotion. Now free from his gripping hug, Sonic took a deep, calming breath and rubbed fractiously at his own chest to rid himself of the sensation of being touched. "Okay, okay! I'm coming! Don't break my door down! I need it!"

He unhooked the little silver key from the windowsill by the door and unlocked it. Gentleman like, he opened the door and smiled cheekily when he saw an ireful Sally and Amy looking at him. "Why'd you lock the door?" The princess asked. Amy stood a foot away from her, holding a basket of freshly picked strawberries. She smiled when he briefly met eyes with her.

"In case I get robbed."

"Oh, so you don't want your wheelchair being nicked, do you?" She retaliated. "Well, aren't you going to invite us in?"

"By all means." He stepped aside to let them through. "So, uh, what's this about?"

Sally looked over at Tails still in the bed. Her curious confusion was clearly apparent, but she didn't remark upon it. "Shadow's gone missing. I thought you might know something about it."

"Why would I? We've been in here all night, sleeping."

"What were you doing yesterday? You were gone for over thirteen hours. You look exhausted."

"And the blue emerald's missing too!" Amy added.

"What? The emerald?" The only one he had managed to keep for a good long time. A bloody souvenir for all the times he had risked his life for freedom.

"Yeah, I went to check on it! I did!" Amy added when Sonic gave her a vacillating look, "in the box as always in the guard room and it was just…gone!"

"We should search Shadow's place." Sonic said. "He might have taken it with him, or he could have hidden it there."

"And what makes you think Shadow took it?" Sally said, folding her arms.

Sometime later, after Sonic had seen to the guard room itself and had decimated its interior to find what Amy had already concluded, he walked back into Shadow's unlocked cottage and ransacked his place looking wildly for it. His two power rings (the last recovered from Knothole) were still in his room.

"You guys should have hoarded it in different places periodically to keep it safe." He told them when no emerald turned up.

Now he was really starting to worry.

Sally, Tails and Amy helped with the search of Shadow's place, yet nothing was found.

Sonic paused at Shadow's doorway and tried to follow his scent. It wasn't old and with no signs of any struggles in his cottage, Sonic assumed that the ultimate life form had walked out and into the dark forest during nightfall. It was possible that the elder had taken his new hero duties to greater standard, and had thus left in search of brandishing some justice.

Following the musky scent, Sonic came up to a thin jagged line of trees where a mesh of hawthorn bushes grew. Here the scent was fainter and harder to pick up. But evident tracks of his trademark hover shoes showed up on the earth.

"I'll set the guards after him." Sally said. "You're too weak to pursue him. And we've all just blessed him with the honorary title of hero. Great."

"Wait for him to come back." Sonic advised. "I trust him. He saved my life. He'll come back."

XXX

"I'm so glad we finally got to meet. Here, sit!"

Shadow had been taken back to the Arbiter Empire, or rather as Elva put it, 'Eolith.'

The journey back had been shorter. Upon agreeing to their terms, Shadow was escorted onto a wagon drawn by a plainlore beast, a pasha. He had not seen one since winter when that had to get Sonic to the caves of Panacea. They were exceptionally quick on their thin, clumsy four legs and were strong. And despite how dumb they appeared to him, he hated them being treated like servants.

Still, as he sat on the wagon watching the trees and stubby terrain flash by, the Arbiters took a quicker route and used a bridge crossing the fast flowing river Shadow had risked swimming with Sonic in tow.

They took him to the same factory connected to the temple. He saw the Arbiters there whom he recognized during the great hedgehog escape. Their callous eyes all turned away from him. None dared oppose what Elva wanted it seemed to him, and then he wondered if this pasha wasn't the only slave around.

Shadow was escorted to a hidden door he could easily find again and he was swiftly led up a set of metal stairs. He waited while a gold Arbiter eagle pressed a few key code numbers into a panel by the doors. Shadow mentally remembered each and every one of them, knowing this vital information and pass codes would prove invalid if Elva changed them every day. Or if she was as paranoid as the Doctor had been, then every hour.

After going through a security check to make sure he had no sharp weapons hidden (he found this ridiculous and unnecessary since he could kill anything with his teeth alone) he was finally presented before a grand hallway where forerunner statues stood posing in wondrous beauty and where the walls had been painted a deep, bloody red. At his feet was a fur rug and he swallowed down his disgust. Several security cameras watched him from the corners of the ceilings. Even one of the lady statues watched him with a fake eye engraved cunningly into its nimble white face.

A single door opened beside more statues. He trod lightly on more fur carpets. Some of them were hedgehog.

Elva sat at the end of a long, mahogany table and in its elongated centre was a branch of lit candles that shimmered from gold holders. But amongst the dancing candles were delicate vases of deep red roses. His heart stuttered. Maria loved roses.

"I'm so glad we finally got to meet. Here, sit!" With a dainty white hand she gestured for him to sit close beside her on one of her red velvet chairs. Everything was - red.

The room they were in was immense. Big enough for Sonic to perform his stupid mundane exercises. A father clock ticked grimly against the far wall. Deer and fox heads looked down at him over the doorway. More statues, some of them animals this time lined the outskirts of the room like inanimate sentries. They were probably armed with more cameras. For the first time in ages, he felt a little afraid.

"Well?" Elva pleasantly smiled, showing fine, straight teeth.

Shadow took his chair and sat down, feeling uncomfortable and out of place. "You have a -" he was sweating, "a lovely place." But his words fell flat and didn't mean a thing.

If Elva had picked up on this, she didn't show it. She merely continued smiling like an excited little girl on her birthday. "My dear Shadow, it's a pleasure. Are you well?"

"Yes." He found himself actually afraid to meet eyes with her. She was a true forerunner all right. Not a bit different from the image on the screen in Faux Forest. Sonic wasn't going to be happy.

"Good." She sat back a little and her hands moved towards a tray by her side. She lifted up a hot kettle and poured steaming, brown liquid into a polished porcelain cup. "Here, have some tea. You can - drink milk can't you? You can have it black if you prefer -"

"No, milk is fine thanks." He shifted in his seat and bit his claws into his fists. It hurt, even through the gloves. What had he got himself into? Oh hell.

She passed the tea towards him and a plate of what appeared to be homemade raisin cookies.

"Now, you must be wondering how I got here in the first place, my dear."

"Yes."

"Well, it was only a few weeks ago when I was actually born. Time flies!" She pasted on a plastic grin, "Robotnik made me years ago. He had planned it all. He had mastered the technique for cloning and more. He made me a woman, not another male. And he also conquered artificial insemination. So when I am ready I can implant myself with a child. It's perfect." She paused, waiting for Shadow to absorb the information. "Robotnik never activated me while he was around. He didn't want to and I can't figure out why yet. Maybe he didn't want me to know him. Maybe he didn't want me to know his mistakes or what he'd become. Anyway after his death, he couldn't reset a switch that had to be reset every five years - if I remember correctly - and so he knew that in his death, another forerunner would come to be."

"I see." He looked up at her then. His breathing rattled in his throat. "So why am I here? Do you intend to kill me?"

"Goodness, no!" Her smile dropped and at once her cool, confident façade peeled away, revealing a startled young teenager. "Shadow, I want you to tell the other animals that I am not like Robotnik! I want to help planet Mobius! I want to fix what my father has done!"

Shadow glanced at her feebly, suddenly feeling more open and less afraid of her. "You mean that?" Oh, heavens above she looked and smelled just like Maria! Maybe this was her! She had been resurrected!

"Yes!" Her witty, lovely smile was back and her bright gold curls bounced up and down while she nodded her dainty head. "Together you and I will be heroes! I know the locations of secret working bases of old Robotnik's that you could never find on your own! And I have three emeralds Shadow! That's enough to start healing the planet where it was damaged!"

Shadow sighed and actually smiled back. He felt so much better. Worry and fear no longer existed. "Sonic told me all forerunners were bad."

"Nonsense. Maria wasn't bad, was she?"

"You know?"

"I know more than you think. Even the star Sonic has."

A little fear came back to him. "What will you do with Sonic?"

"Nothing!" She cried at once, "I love all animals! I just wanted to prove to you how accurate and up-to-date my information is, even when I never leave this palace of mine!"

Shadow slowly relaxed. "Okay."

"I get my information from the Arbiters and my father's old records. Have a biscuit."

Shadow nervously took one from the plate. "What will you do with the Doctor's old weapons?"

"Destroy them. Or keep them for good causes. When you go, Shadow, promise me you'll tell Sonic of our little meeting."

He nodded and felt his stomach tumble. Would the blue hero go nuts or be okay with Elva? But he felt like he trusted her. What was there not to trust? She was open, honest. Her eyes were as clear as the sky. There were no clouds. No violent thunder. Only love and care. Only Maria had been like this. Innocent, caring. Loving.

"What if he - doesn't like this?"

"Then we'll have to change his mind. But I am frightened of him, dear Shadow." She said with a beaten sigh, looking away, "he could ruin everything. He may never trust me because I am from Robotnik's DNA. I have his very mind, Shadow. He may hate me and destroy all peace we might gain for Mobius."

"I won't let that happen." Shadow replied in a heartfelt promise.

"You mean that?" She chuckled lightly and left her chair. Shadow tensed.

Sweet Jesus she's going to attack me!

She threw her arms around him and brought him into a cherished hug, causing him to drop his raisin biscuit. Shadow melted in the embrace at once.

The gods have blessed me.

Slowly, unsurely, he hugged her back. She smelled of marjoram and honeysuckle. Her lips were as red as cherries.

The hedgehog blushed.

Finally she pulled away and set him with caring, gentle eyes. "Give me a chance. Give me a chance to be your ally and to aid Mobius. You and the Arbiters are at war. Why is this? Aren't we all together as a species on this planet? We should be working together like we always should have! Just because I am a lowly forerunner doesn't mean I'm going to be anything like the ones before me!"

"Maria - no - I mean Elva -"

"You can call me Maria if you wish, dear one."

He paused, feeling vaguely embarrassed. His heart was singing for her. Oh how could he have been so afraid before?

"I will help you." He whispered in his soft voice, "I trust you. You're right. We can do this. And Mobius will be safe and better for us all."

"I knew you'd see! The Arbiters will help us! They have scouts and spies everywhere! For it was them that found me in my cryotube. Them that bathed and clothed me and showed me Robotnik's old computers. Just think of the future! Now -" She stroked his soft, ebony fur, "drink your tea and then my loyal friends will escort you back home. Don't forget me." She kissed him on the forehead and he almost fainted in delight.

"Here," he said, and dropped the blue emerald onto the table's shiny surface. "Take it. If you want to heal the planet, you'll need all seven. I brought it with me to defend myself, but saw that there was no need."

Elva looked at him with considering eyes. "Thank you. Really. We can make this world great, together."

Shadow was guided back down through the security doors, down the metal stairs and into the back of the wagon where the dull pasha and rider awaited him. As promised he was taken back over the bridge and not a single Arbiter, no matter how mean and hard they looked, never spoke nor looked at him. It was as if he were royalty. And he felt that if he gave them a command, they'd obey.

He loved this treatment. And he had a feeling Sonic would love it too.

He was taken close to the outer rim of home. Faux Forest. Here he hopped off the wagon and as soon he was on bare soil, the rider whipped the pasha on back towards Eolith. As it turned to leave, its dim green eyes caught his for a moment. Shadow saw straight through its sadness. He almost felt as if the plainlore beast was saying, 'welcome to the party.'


	8. Through it All

**Dib07: **Hi again all. :)

Here's the next update and thank you so much for the reviews! They mean a lot to me.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 8: Through it All<strong>

"_We'll set the guards after him." _

So Sally had promised if they did not hear of Shadow soon.

Sonic found the whole affair a little wrong. They owed Shadow everything. But…taking an emerald that had belonged to the princess had its consequences he supposed.

The walks had been too tedious and exhausting. His muscles, unutilized from being not used for so long, ached and stung and since his little secret adventure yesterday, he was bone-tired.

Devoted and caring, Tails had brought him the crutch especially. It had been remade, since the last one had been annihilated in the cart when it went aflame. Sonic, while recovering from starvation and infection, had told Tails what had gone on during the winter days and winter nights as many times as was asked. And so the kitson learned what had become of Thunder, the hunters they encountered, and White Haven. "You must have been scared, Sonic."

"I was. Sometimes." Sonic replied, making his way through the sunny dirt roads leading throughout town. "Mostly when the pain hit and that ghostly time between the medications. The times when I could feel myself slipping. Could feel the darkness probe what life I had left. Shadow was my cure for the longest time. He saved me so many times. He kept…forcing life into me."

Tails nodded knowingly, and didn't say anything for a time. He walked out a little further ahead as if to make sure the way was clear. Then he'd wait for him to catch up. They could see Amy collecting daises, tulips and foxgloves. Anything with alluring beauty. She loved the rosy smells of early summer and the dashing colors that went with it. After gathering a sizable bunch to fit her clay vase in the kitchen she tied to stems together with string and began to head home. She spotted them and waved brightly with a smile to match. Sonic waved back and blew a kiss in her direction.

"Tease." Tails said.

They came to the shade of trees where the heat felt less invading. There, Sonic leaned his crutch against an oak trunk and purposely stepped away from it as if being too close to it was an affront to his nature. Tails sat on the grassy bank and pulled at the grass while his brother commenced his stretching exercises.

"You…you wanna talk about Sally?" The fox inquired.

"Why'd I wanna talk about her?" He didn't look at him. Didn't need to. He saw only what he needed to do. There were tasks were to be processed first to occupy him. He ran his fingers down to the ground while keeping his legs straight. His fingers didn't go that low – not like they used to. Still he tried it again before shifting to work on his legs. He stretched each one out in turn, being careful not to overdo it, yet feeling like doing it anyway.

"You seem…depressed."

"I'm not depressed, bud. At all."

"You are."

Sonic rolled his eyes irritably. "Stop talking about it."

"See, there you go! You evade it! Anything you can to stir clear of the subject! You are depressed about it! You avoid Sally. You sleep apart now. You don't even go to see her in the mornings. Or in the afternoons…or in the evenings…"

"Tails, I love that you care, I do. But some things you just need to stay out of, big guy. She's got problems. I got problems. It happens. Problems are…good. Or else life would just be too easy and tedious."

Tails shrugged. "So, you don't want to talk about it?"

"Nah. Not today. I'd rather talk about…exercises. Which one shall I try next?"

"Can we play tag?"

"How _old _are you?" Tails opened his mouth to object, obviously hurt by Sonic's brash comment, no matter how reticent it was. But Sonic, smiling wide and bright, came over and tackled him to the floor with sudden, mischievous strength. "You're it, buddy! You loony!" He jumped up and started to run. He fell down the grassy bank, not expecting his left leg to bail out on him quite so suddenly. He heard Tails approach him from behind at an easy, unhassled pace. "Bro, you better not be charitable towards me just because I'm not at my best. Whoever tags twice, wins!"

This made the glow return to Tails' eyes. He ran down the slope at an admirable pace, no longer holding back. He stretched out a finger to tag Sonic, but the hedgehog rolled away, got up and jogged through the trees in jagged, limping gaits. Tails sprang upwards from the exhalation of the chase, his twin tails churning together to form his propeller. He flew after his brother in ardent haste.

Sonic skipped into the shadows as softly as a deer and held up beside a tree trunk, breathing hard. Back pressed against the bark, he waited in the dark. He waited for a few moments, counting the seconds. However, Tails passed on, his propeller whizzing through the air as he jovially searched. Sonic remarked softly under his strained breathing. "You forgot to track!" He separated himself from the shadows and made a beeline for Tails on sore legs. Too occupied with his frontend, the kitson did not see, smell or hear Sonic coming. With a brisk jump, Sonic tapped Tails' foot. "Tag!"

Tails dropped in his flight, ready to land Sonic a hit, but the hedgehog dived beneath the kitson and slid down a sloping bank of trees that rested on the incline of a dusty, murky hill. "Sonic, you'll hurt yourself!"

His words unlocked that veil of mental might he had brought down upon it for so long and to keep it forgotten. And he remembered in one great misgiving flood.

"_Sonic, get back to bed. You'll hurt yourself."_

"Sal, what are you doing?"He had come out the bedroom and into the lounge in the wheelchair. He hated using it, but anything to see what his partner was doing. It was late evening. The snow bawled outside like a screaming wolf tormenting their cottage. Sally hadn't come back to bed to see him. And he had got fed up with waiting.

His hands glided upon the tops of the wheels as he inched towards her across the room. She was tossing things into a large grey sack. Toys. Clothing. Anything colorful was being tossed into that bag.

"Nothing, Son. Nothing. Just clearing out some old, useless junk to be burned."

"Burned?"

She had looked at him once. Just once, as she clawed out baby stuff from the cupboard where she had kept everything. And she did it all in her garment gown as if the sudden urge to rid herself of this stuff had been too powerful to resist. She was throwing out everything from baby rattles to cot bedding.

"Go back to bed, please. I didn't want you to see this, which was why I got up while you slept."

Sonic sat there, the shock as thick as gravity.

It had never got any easier.

The whizzing of the propellers was above him. He had paused for much-needed breath on the bottom dip of the hills in the forest as the leaves splayed out above them in moving ripples. Timing his move to perfection, Sonic crouched low, and kicked up speed as he curved to get away from Tails flashing spring of forward motion. While the fox had drawn downwards, Sonic used this opportunity to spin round fast. So fast that Tails did not have time to turn back round or pick up speed to accelerate forwards. Sonic grabbed his dangling foot. "Tag. I got ya twice. I win!"

Tails groaned outwardly, and set his spinning tails to come to a rest as his feet touched the dusty ground. "How were you that fast? You took me by surprise."

"Were you going easy on me?"

Tails sheepishly scratched at his cheek. "Yeah! Kinda!"

"Well, you did good." Sonic said. "And I'll show you that hot volcanic spring I found recently, so let's head there. I gotta warn you though Tails, you're getting a little rusty. I expected you to be faster."

"You cheated!"

"How? By dropping down to the floor?"

"Yes!"

They laughed softly, even if this brought up Sonic's chesty, agonizing coughs. As they came out of the woodland and back onto the path towards town, they saw Willow, a big mountain cat, making love to a tree. Sonic giggled helplessly. The hilarity of it all had wrung through, shifting much of the sorrow within him. He tried to nudge Tails on, doing a bad job of covering his younger brother's eyes as they passed.

"Was that cat on…heat? This late?" Tails asked, who had obviously seen and known what it was.

"Yeah. I hate the breeding season. Everyone seems to go mad. You'll see why, someday. Be thankful to Dowa that you don't see Knux during his special month! He humps everything and anything!"

"No way!"

"Yeah way! He's worse than me! Well… used to be worse than me. This spring I never went into heat. At all. But to be honest, ever since I've had this star, I have just never been in the mood."

"Maybe you should see a doctor."

"No, no, NO! Maybe I'm late. Maybe this autumn I'll be back to normal."

As they started delving through the town's houses, he glanced over towards Shadow's small rounded cottage in the distance whose walls had been made out of stone. Its thatched roof, strong and thick, stood out taller than most others. And his chimney was spewing out - smoke? Sonic stood straight quickly, spines prickling. Did that mean he was back? "Tails…I gotta go now."

"Go where?" He looked to see where Sonic was looking and got the picture at once. "Oh no, not without me. No way."

Sonic cocked his head at him and wondered why Tails was so madly adamant on remaining by his side. He could take care of himself. However, the impetus of Shadow's arrival did not give him the luxury of delay.

xxx

He didn't even bother knocking. Sonic waltzed straight in, stiff with anger. His misty green eyes jaded with color and spirit. Shadow looked across at him casually while he tended to his kettle that was coming to a boil above the hungry flames of his little stove. On his wooden table next to a single rose was a cherry pie and a plate of freshly picked carrots.

"Good afternoon." The darker hedgehog said dryly as he watched Tails come in behind his brother, closing the door politely behind him.

"Shades, where have you been? Sal's guards went out looking for you but lost your tracks! And our blue emerald is missing. Care to explain?"

"I went back to the Arbiter Empire. I have a lot to tell you."

"You sure friggen' do, I… was worried about y…" He was about to come forward when an old, yet similar smell wafted on the air. He sniffed and growled upon realizing with horror at what it was. "You!" He pointed at him in fear. "You smell of overlander!"

"Yes. Yes I do. Sit down."

"No, you…"

"_Sit_ down!"

Sonic and Tails both complied at once, beckoned into forced silence as they sat at the table.

Shadow calmly, ordinarily, poured three cups of tea, one white, two black with his kettle. After putting the kettle to one side he put the black cups of tea near Sonic and Tails as took up the last seat opposite them. The tea tasted bitter and stale compared to what Elva had given him. He sighed and greeted his mellowed red eyes up at Sonic's confused emerald ones.

Even his star seemed to glare at him accusingly.

"I didn't expect any of this to happen. Just listen to me and speak afterwards. I abhor interruptions."

"Go on." Ignoring the tea, Sonic crossed his arms and rested his feet up on the table.

"Last night I couldn't sleep. So I went out deeper into the forest to have a think. I saw a red light in the distance and followed it. It only led me to a mangy, tick-ridden circus of Arbiters. But they had a computer screen with them, one they must have carried until it was activated. And it showed me an image of a forerunner. A female."

Sonic's peachy cheeks drained to chalk-white immediately. His ears bent back.

"No way! A…A forerunner?"

"Shush! I haven't finished yet! She wanted to speak with me. I didn't know why at the time! But I chose to go, I wanted to know, like you, why and how she was here with such technology from the screen she used to contact me with. So I was curious and went to her. And I was also confident that if things went wrong, I could attack and escape on my own." He paused for a few reverent moments as if to gather himself before continuing. "The Arbiters safely led me back to their Empire. They took me up to that old factory. Turned out it's her hideaway home. She calls it, Eolith." He explained to him their little talk, the food. How she came to be, and what her pure intentions were now. Of alliance and ultimately, peace. When he was all done, Sonic honestly looked bedazzled with bemusement and unease. A rare expression. Shadow waited while nonchalantly sipping at his milky tea. Finally Sonic seemed to tear away from his paralyzed state and cried hoarsely, "we have to do something! She's Robotnik's kin! She'll attack us, Shades!"

Shadow almost spat his tea back out at him. "Why, you fucking fool? She's not like the Doctor at all! Haven't you listened to me, Sonic? I saw it in her eyes! She meant what she said!"

"And join the Arbiters?"

"Yes. For peace. Then there can be no wars. Don't you get it? This has been what you've always wanted. Freedom. Now's your chance."

"She, what - expects me to go over there and bow? That's a laugh!"

Shadow heard himself growling. "Sonic, she has three chaos emeralds. The fourth one I gave her. She doesn't need your personal co-operation. All she wants is for you to obey her and any other freedom fighters. Then there will be no fighting. She's genuine. And her name is Elva."

"What else does she know?" He kneaded his head as all this information hit him. Shadow had given her their emerald…he didn't want to be angry. Shadow was the hero. Had saved his life in the winter storm…the life-giving surgery. He wasn't sure what to say or do without upsetting someone in the process.

"Everything. She knows the hidden location of Robotnik's old, toxic factories. And she says that with all the emeralds she'll restore the planet and rid Mobius of its dark past completely. No more pollution. No more barren lands that refuse to grow. Think of it, Sonic! A paradise!"

"A- A fool's paradise." Sonic dropped his feet down from the table and stood up. "Shadow, I'm disappointed. You believed her filthy lies, buddy. She's got you on a hook."

"Forerunners aren't all bad! She's a fucking girl for God's Sake! She's just like Maria!"

"I just have a bad feeling! Okay, so you gave her an emerald, that's fine. But you need to apologize to our leader for that hiccup. I just… I want to trust Elva…but she's Robotnik's spawn from what you're telling me! I don't know what to consider…"

"You don't have to consider anything! You can just sit back and let things roll!" Shadow sniped at the both of them. "I'm the hero now. What I say goes. I protect. I lead. I look out for all, and that is precisely what I am doing!"

Sonic's pale face rumpled into a fierce, predatory snarl. "See this?" He pointed at the long, jagged scar on his side. "A forerunner did this. And my star? A forerunner did that to me as well. I can't believe you would...you would…"

"So you won't join her then?"

"I don't know!" Sonic yelled back in frustration. "We animals can't live in peace with them! We tried! We all did! For centuries we've been fighting! And she has all those emeralds!"

Shadow stood up too. "You were friends with the Doctor once too, you idiot!"

"And he betrayed me and killed my parents! I was naïve back then. Naïve and still accepting of all. I didn't want to hurt him. Then things changed. Shadow, I'm gonna find a way round her factory and deal with it my way."

"If she found a cure for you, would you join her?"

At that Sonic stopped. He looked ready to speak and an internal conflict raged from within. Then, abruptly, he picked up the cherry pie on the table and slung it at Shadow's face. His aim was true and Shadow stumbled back against his kitchen counter, red innards of pie all over his countenance. Sonic limped out, Tails closely at his heels.

"Fucking hedgehog!" The Ultimate Life Form went to go after him, but his heart felt too heavy to stop him. So he shouted crossly at his open doorway; "that pie took me eight days to make, ya know!"

Sonic staggered across the green grass, swatting flies away from him while Tails came running up behind. For no sane reason Sonic could understand or fathom, the breath left his lungs as if some unforeseen wind had ripped it out of him and then forced into an invisible bubble where no air could get to him. He almost fell forwards, legs becoming weak and shivery. Tails was at his side. "Sonic? Are you okay? What's wrong?"

He shook his head at him, and the longer he couldn't breathe, the more the fear grew. What started off as an orb of doubt and worry was soon becoming a tunnel of congested panic. Confused, he lost his footing and spilled into a rose bush. Tails couldn't grab him in time. "T-Tails!" The past easiness of being able to speak, and say names so liberally came as a shock. No longer would he take breathing and talking for granted. Then the kitson was gripping his hand and the sliding world began to even out.

"Sonic, look at me! It's okay! You're panicking! Breathe!"

"How… h-how…"

"You had a panic attack not long after coming back from seeing Panacea, but I don't think you remember it. Sally told me what it was. It's okay. See?"

Sonic blinked and looked around himself and at the grass stems tickling his legs and rump. He was breathing. The horrible tightness in his chest was fading like an ill dream, and the air smelled of pollen and honeysuckle. He took another lungful, content just to breathe. He hadn't realized just how tense his body had automatically become, and when he relaxed, he felt loose and cold all over as though he was suffering the mental aftershocks of a gory battle.

"Tails, don't tell anyone, okay?" The kitson nodded. "Gee, was that r-really a panic attack? But I wasn't… I wasn't… I thought… I thought…"

"It's nothing to be afraid of, Sonic. Really." Tails slung an arm around his shoulders and squeezed his thin body as tight as he dared against his. "Your secrets safe with me."

"But I was just walking… I was just…"

Tails shook his head at him. "That's why they call them panic attacks, Sonic. Come on. Let's go home."

xxx

The moon, now shrunken to half of its oval size, floated up the valley like a cold winking gorgon's eye that discerned the land with eerie indifference. The clouds were low and small, revealing sparkling stars and distant planets.

Sonic sat closely on the bank while Tails bathed in a warm volcanic spring outside of town in a restricted area because the place was unsafe at night due to the possible dangers. The fox was quite busy grooming and washing himself with much deliberation, enjoying the supple heat and steamy warmth the volcanic spring brought. Sonic, needing a bath too but not being the one to have it in a spring, took it upon himself to lick his body clean. The night around them was soft and peaceful. The fireflies buzzed above them and the occasional glow worm pulsed out into the feathery darkness from their tree roost.

Sonic still felt slightly incensed over Shadow's recent aerated declaration. He still thought the whole charade had to be a joke.

The thing was, Shadow never joked. And then to mark the occasion, he'd had a panic attack straight after it.

Ambivalent and tired, he shoved it all out of his mind and tried to concentrate on one patch of stubborn fur that kept bouncing back up again every time his tongue went to wet it down. Bathing in a little pool sure would have made a lot more sense.

Tails climbed out of the spring behind him. After shaking himself off, he slipped on his socks, shoes and gloves and relaxed on the bank beside his brother.

The windmill from the town clanked loudly in the darkness even from this distance. The crickets sung their relaxing hums and songs.

"Shadow's risking a lot, huh?" Tails spoke at last, knowing that Sonic wasn't going to speak first. "What with a chaos emerald straight over to her. Behind Sally's back. Thing is, she works with the Arbiters right? And the Arbiters hate us. So how is this Elva going to convince them to work alongside us?"

"I wanna trust, Shades, I guess. He's a good guy. He trusts his instincts. And heck, he's gotta do the decision making because I am an invalid and can't do much."

"You are getting a lot better, Sonic." Tails gave him a playful shove. "Sure, you're a little weak and sore, but it takes a lot to come out the other end. Your spirit kept you going. No one else would have been strong enough surviving what you had to go through."

"Tails, I love being here. I love the here and now. Sure I get frustrated at myself…but I can't help feeling guilty."

Tails leaned towards him. "Why?"

"I struggle with the feeling that this life isn't mine."

"It is yours!"

"No. It isn't. I took a life, remember? To live. It makes me feel…guilty. I just…I just didn't want to kill another…"

"Look, brother, say no more. Everything that happened, happened, right?" He looked forcibly at him. "Right?"

"Right. Say, Tails, let's sleep outside tonight. Please. I want to see the stars. Because… because he's up there."

"Sure thing. Follow me."

Sonic wanted to relax from being strong. He wanted a break from it all, and Tails understood perfectly. He seemed to encourage it.

Going back was a little tedious even with a crutch because of the darkness and hampering muscles. He still managed to make his way back to the town and walked towards his favorite oak tree. Leaving the crutch at the base of the trunk, Tails grabbed hold of his hands and lifted him up into the roof of protective leaves and supportive branches. Trees were often an aegis of safety whenever needed.

The star lay bare what lay in the choking black of night, revealing the thick, widest branch Sonic had picked out not too long ago, reinforcing the branch with a wooden platform and few layers of blankets to keep him from getting too stiff by laying uncomfortably.

Together they reclined upon the platform and at once snuggled together for warmth. Above them the luscious display of stars could be seen between the allotted leaves of the tree so that the constellations of a forever turning galaxy could be viewed at leisure.

"Sonic," the kitson whispered in his ear. "I know what'll really cheer you up. Tomorrow, we'll take my plane for a spin. Do a bit of our own investigating. An adventure!"

"Sounds like a good idea, little bro." His voice was borderline hesitation. "But my protection is a little thin at the moment, and it could be dangerous. Besides, don't you have school tomorrow?"

Tails huffed dejectedly from his side. "I don't go to school. I teach myself if there is an area of knowledge I lack. Don't turn this thing around, Sonic. We're doing this, together."

"Why does it have to be together? You can stay here; keep things safe while Shadow and I take a patrol out. We'll skim the area, and learn what there is to be learned."

"Sonic, you're testing my patience here."

The thin blue hedgehog glanced across from him with glazed eyes. Eyes of stout confusion. "What?"

"You. We're always gonna be together through chaos and back. You wanna know why?" Sonic opened his mouth to take a guess, but Tails was already overriding whatever speech he may have made; "because I am not going through with separation ever again. You left me for those mountains at the Waylands. Then you forced me to stay behind in Faux Forest when you visited Panacea. You made me promise to stay. You made me promise! And loyal though I am, I thought many times of breaking that vow we made. But I stayed, brother. I stayed though it hurt the most. Every day was agony you can't even begin to understand!" Sonic listlessly sat and took it all in, watching Tails explode as gently as the fox could possibly manage without breaking something in the process. "You were gone for five days. You know what that really felt like?" Sonic slowly, dumbly shook his head, causing his majestic quills to sway ever so slightly. "Years. Time stopped. I was in hell. I had to consider realistically that I was looking at a future without you. Already I was planning on giving up. I know you might think that's weak spiritually, but I was lost. Lost. Every tear was a waterfall…" His voice lost its edge; its virulent haste that had lent him the courage to purge everything inside now ebbed away. "I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep. And I knew that the higher outcome would be you dying…"

"Tails…" He was full of everything to say, and then nothing at all. He wasn't quite that slick with words sometimes, especially on sensitive matters, and Sally knew this all too well. Confidence wasn't needed here. Only sincere honesty and respect. But he didn't know how to bring it all out. Instead he went for the simple option and rested a heavy hand on Tail's shoulder. "I can't even begin to fathom how you felt, and so I won't even try." His eyes searched his, but Tails refused to acknowledge his. The kitson's teary eyes were fixed on the trunk of the tree directly below them and nothing else. It was a childish, defensive reaction he always slid into whenever he was confronted while upset. "I won't sugar-coat what I'm gonna say to you either, Tails. I know things looked bad. I know things…could have gone either way. I know…I…I…left you on your own. But I got better. I guess we both need to stop focusing on the past and we both need to look ahead. See how far we've come? We've done it together, you and me. I won't leave you ever again. And that's a promise."

"So are we going on this adventure together or not?" His voice still sagged, as did his ears. He wasn't entirely pleased with Sonic's honest reply.

"Yeah. You and me. It'll be fun, so long as you don't mind a slow hedgehog on the job."

Tails smiled a little, the dim light in his eyes brightening. "Then let's do this!"

However, for the rest of the day, and for the longest time after that, Sonic could not get Elva out of his head.


	9. The Deadly Adventure Begins

**Dib07: **Thank you for the awesome reviews! They are a privilege, and they keep me going. So thanks all! It's a delight to write for you all! Oh, and before I forget, there is a voting poll at the top of my profile page concerning the continuation of one of my Sonic X stories. I invite you to put in your opinion. And one last note, my sister site is up and running on fictionpress, and I go by the same penname! Though my updated stories are not Sonic, if you are interested in something a little different, and an appetite for gunslingers and fantasy, then look no further. See you there!

:)

**xxxxxxxxx**

_**Chapter 9: The Deadly Adventure Begins**_

_**xxxxxxxxxx  
><strong>_

"'_You rodents try too hard! Honestly! A mouse cannot conquer the world! There's no hope for a hedgehog either! You are simply an animal. And an animal cannot fight against his darkest of nightmares!"' Dr. Ivo Robotnik - Panacea_

_xxxxxx  
><em>

Shadow turned up unannounced at Eolith the very next day and strode in amongst the flea-infected Arbiters in their little city. He recognized Lord Rathuier at once, along with the gold eagle who had imputed the codes to the door on his last visit. They were both looking over an open scroll that they held out in the light, whispering under their breath. When he stalked right up behind them, he saw that the plans were of a robot. Its design held that Eggman quality to it. And though it was merely in blueprint form, he got the idea that this design was going into development.

"You!" Shadow said behind them, causing them to spin round to face the hedgehog. "I demand to see Elva!"

"Queen Elva!" The rat spoke regally.

"Whatever, rat. Take me to her."

The Lord looked over at Ruff, the golden eagle. The bird nodded its sharp, narrow head. "Queen Elva has been wanting to see you anyway. I will guide you in, but I must inform her beforehand of your presence."

"Fuck that! You take me to her now or I'll break your neck!"

Threats did wonders.

The whole time he kept behind the eagle in visceral patience as each code was keyed in through each door until at last Ruff allowed him in.

Now alone, Shadow stalked across the hallway and into the massive dining area where they had sat and talked yesterday. Nobody was here now. And under a large boar's head were six computer screens. He hadn't noticed them before. They must have been hidden behind the wall somehow. And each one had a thick coiled tube at its back when he went over to peer at them more closely. And with a pinch of horror, he saw that the images were of dead dragons, ongoing texts of draconia and one of them showed a detailed image of the dark green chaos emerald. He paid this one particular attention and actually tapped on the image. At once the screen, upon his contact, spewed out more, smaller images and a log. The log read in the old forerunner language;

_Area 1221_

_Date and time: 3034 : 5:30_

_Log Entry:_

_Acquired by the waterfalls of 1221._

_1222 still searching -_

"Shadow."

The hedgehog whipped around and felt like he had been caught opening the cookie jar.

Elva stood in the doorway wearing a black silken dress. Her eyes, ever pleasing, ever gentle. But her golden hair, imbued with the very light of morning was now a black cape of hair.

"Maria?"

"Queen Elva." She corrected him as she walked in. "Like my change? I was so sick of blonde, so I decided a much darker shade would do instead. I see you've had a good look at my screens."

"I - I'm sorry - they were on so I just thought…"

"No matter. Come."

He obediently did as he was told and stopped a few paces from her. "Queen Elva, did you find the fifth chaos emerald?"

"I did. My search is going even harder now. I've sent Arbiters out everywhere to look for them. Now, my sweet, has Sonic agreed to join us and to stop our wars?"

"No, not quite. I tried to get him to see, Queen Elva. Just give him more time."

"Time? There is no time." Her voice sounded hard and callous. Much unlike her usual soft, motherly tones like before. "He is stalling us, Shadow. They all are. On purpose. Can't you see that? Or are you more stupid than I thought?"

"No, no but…"

"Enough. I won't hurt him. But if anyone gets in my way..." She flicked her hair back and came close enough to touch him. He allowed her to stroke his ear as she swooned more softly, "now, my darling, you've come to see me. Is everything okay?"

"Yes - quite - I thought you needed my company."

She frowned then and his heart sank. She was not satisfied by his answer.

Slowly she drew away and walked over to the long table and began tapping her short fingernails upon its shiny surface. "Planet Mobius deserves freedom and peace. It hasn't tasted that for thousands of years. And it needs a ruler, someone to keep things in order. To keep wars from breaking out. And that ruler must control all the chaos emeralds so that no one else can put their paws on them."

"Is that such a wise idea? Putting them all in one place?" He asked grimly. He started to head closer towards the door where the animal heads from the walls stared down at him in hatred and disgust.

"We'll protect them well, you and me. You can be my king, Shadow. You are the Ultimate Life Form. You are, as my sources state, Gerald's last creation before he died."

"A king?" First a hero and now…

"Yes. Imagine it." She fixed him with her blue eyes and grasped his hands into hers. "You and I - supreme rulers forever! No more diseases! Strife! Hatred!"

"How can you rid a planet of its diseases?"

"With the _draconia_ of course! Once I've understood it more, I'll make my own and charge its energy with the help of the chaos emeralds all around the world! And then no one will be sick!"

Shadow nodded. "You've thought of so many wonderful things."

"Yes. But I would like one thing from you before you go, my darling."

"Anything."

"I want to take a sample of your blood. Nothing more. I want the key ingredient in your DNA for the process of the_ draconia_ to hold as I spread it across the world. Do you understand? You're special Shadow. For without it, my plans could never work and the freedom fighters would doom us all."

"Queen Elva, do as you will. Please. For the sake of Mobius." She took his hand and led him out of the elegant dining chamber and down a steel corridor. He felt strangely safe with her. And she meant every word she said.

XXX

A high jet of indelible wind blasted over the valley later that afternoon. The trees rocked morosely and the birds screamed to get of the way in time as a chaffing gust ripped at the woodland as it passed low above.

The asperity of the gales slapped against the cockpit window as Tails took them miles across crisp, young lands in his red biplane. Its rotors were only dimmed by its nosy engine.

"Akanto Fort is deep in Feral Woods. There is no quick way in and out." Tails spoke in the cabin, the cockpit insulated enough so that they could hear each other even over the humming engine. Sonic spied through the side window. His mind was racing, even if his feet were not. Shadow was up to something more and he knew it. And Feral Wood was no walk in the park. The territory of bandits and cowboys was always dark and sordid. The light of the day struggled to peel through. Poisonous mushrooms grew thickly in every corner. Fungus lathered trees and the grass like a living, fetid carpet.

"There has to be a quicker route round to Akanto, and I want to find the back of the factory where its security might be less." Sonic explained. "Also, buddy, where there would be no rivers."

"Hey Sonic, what else lives in Feral Woods apart from Arbiters? I used to hear stories once, about mystical beasts living there with these red glowing eyes…"

"I'm not really sure, bro. Not sure at all, but right now I don't give two quills about that. We need to know if Elva is good or not without needlessly risking ourselves."

"You sure have become cautious lately, Sonic. It's not like you."

"Well, I've had a tough year! I'm allowed to take things in a little more wisely until I start feeling stronger!"

Flying slowly over the dark, hungry forest cost them more time than initially thought. Feral Wood was huge, and had grown substantially over the last year.

To make sure they got every little detail of the Arbiter kingdom from an eagle eyed view, Tails angled left and started peeling away from the woods and towards upon flat, open ground. To the west was the slender part of Feral Wood bending down the shallow hill that shrouded Eolith in a protective green coat. To the east were the cliffs that led out to the sea.

Just then, a brilliant shining object glinted balefully in the sky. It caught the hedgehog's attention at once and he looked up, bringing a hand up to shadow his eyes against the splay of the sun. The little shiny object was getting closer and as it did, it got bigger.

Sonic frowned and just stared at it.

"Could that be a dragon?" It was too far to really tell. However, the speed of the object flying towards him must have picked up. Bushes and flowers convulsed violently from below the plane by the wind of the thing. The force it was giving off from such a distance was phenomenal.

"Can't be…"

Like a rocket or a small meteor, it thundered straight towards the plane as if it had been fired from a cannon. Leaving it a little too late, Sonic cried out. "Tails, evade! Evade!"

Large and grey like raw granite, it smashed into the valley and at impact a spray of stones and earth peppered the close vicinity like bullets. The callous impetus of its arrival was much too close to the plane, and stones dented the neatly painted sides like lethal shrapnel. A shard of stone came straight through the insulation and stuck out the plastic inside the cockpit on Tails' side by his feet. If the shell of the plane had not slowed it down, it would have gone straight through and into the fox.

Tails craned his plane round, racing to get away. Regardless, the spray abated and they were able to see what had fallen, or rather – crashed below them.

As the dust cleared, Sonic saw everything.

A creature, but not biological, stood up on four legs and shook the grass and mud from its rocky, metallic skin.

"Tails, set the plane down! It's got to be Elva's new pet! We have to stop it!"

"Sonic, you're not ready to fight!"

"Put this plane down now! You gotta have faith in me! First you moan that I'm overcautious, now you moan when I wanna be reckless!"

Tails gulped and turned round in his seat to briefly lay eyes on his brother. The excitement in Sonic's eyes was clear. He could not be denied. "Fine. But we're in this together. Put on your parachute under your seat. I'm doing this my way too. Eject when I say."

Sonic rolled his eyes, weak heart hammering way too hard against his ribs. "Just do it. Less talking."

Below them as Tails circled in the sky whilst gaining some height for safety, the beast slowly turned its large knobby head to look at him from upon its long, thick neck. Its lengthy metal tail wavered torpidly in the air while it used its four cumbersome legs to turn to face them. Down its ridged back were jagged spikes as if they had been freshly picked from mountain tops. Its teeth looked like never-melting purple icicles. Its eyes were a pale crystal blue.

It was as if some playful giant had skillfully crafted this beast out from the earth of Mobius' very bones. And by its mammoth size, Sonic could not tell exactly how it had got into the sky in the first place. Had their espionage tactics deployed some kind of new defensive system?

The granite tower of a beast opened its mouth to reveal a burning whitish green down its dark throat. Even as its jaw opened, crust and bits of earth fell from it due to the rubble that had showered its profile from the massive drop.

But that was not all. Its two bone horns atop its head also glowed with the same polar color. And before the color got too bright the beast focused the power into a treble beam as the two sources from its horns connected down to its mouth, ripping out beams of divine, bright light. It rallied up at the plane that tried to swerve away from it, but the beams followed without any intent on stopping. And the metal monolith was surprisingly agile on its feet as it balanced with its tail and shunted around in circles to try and catch the plane zooming above it.

High enough, there was a break in the beams. "Now! Eject!" Tails cried, who at this point, was in combat mode.

Sonic had barely straddled the parachute gear on in time. The cockpit hatch above opened out, allowing whistling, uncouth gales to attack the innards of the cabin. Sonic unclipped his seatbelt and rose into the pounding winds. One hand on the shoulder strap of his gear for luck, he jumped. Gosh, this brings back memories of old times.

The world below was an oval landscape of bright detail and august beauty. To the far reaches of his sight were mountains congealed in snow and winter fog. He could see farms and houses in the distance. Could see everything.

Remembering himself as he whistled through the air like a bullet, he enjoyed the rushing sensation for as long as he could before pulling the cord to his parachute. The nostalgia was over way too quickly. The rustling speed he had come to remember so well, was over as the diaphanous parachute opened out behind him, slowing his descent to a crawl. The aching screaming wind was lulled and he was left with a grinning monster beneath him. He could almost feel its power beneath him as he descended. Its metal hide and jutting spines seemed tense and bulging with energy. And its face, he saw it turn to stare saliently at him as he glided downwards, was full of shadowed cruelty and iron mettle. Though it did not seem to be of anything living (and certainly not a Mobian animal of blood), it held a belligerent energy that was ready to crush all who stood up before it. Whether it be motivated to do such a thing or not.

To distract the massive android from Sonic's descent, Tails open fired on the beast using Armed Fire rounds of explosive tipless casing at it.

Sonic landed heavily on the ground, the shroud of the white parachute threatening to envelope him. He slithered out from under its thin material, and leveled his gaze at the towering beast that looked a hundred times more massive now that he was on the ground.

Tails zoomed in low, hitting it with everything he had before circling back up again, the crisp white of the sun glancing off the red paint as the biplane regressed. Smoke began to furl from its punctured sides from the initial attack of debris. The plane was a great scout and transport vessel, but not a glorified war machine.

Acting like a cleaver, the metallic machine used its tail to try and slap Tails out of the air, but luckily it missed by a long shot. The plane was still an aerial masterpiece of agility.

Sonic bounded towards the robot, his limps being dragged out much more predominately. He hated how physically stricken he looked. But he had to fight. Had to fight and win. This was how he did things. This would always be.

Too infuriated perhaps by the plane, the beast had its sensors trained on the heavens, giving a crippled hedgehog ample time to crawl his way up to it. Using his past experiences, he bounced up its long, robotic spine, minding the electrical cables, crannies and lumbering ravines of metal and oil. It seemed a long way to get at its head, for he hoped that may be its weakest point. But he was rather worried at how this robot had come about, and had a feeling something darker and not of natural causes had made this thing.

The mammoth creature turned its neck around and a billowing stream of pure seething greenish white screamed down its spine to hit the animal. To avoid it, Sonic had to lurch sideways. The lazer followed in a single wide line.

And the stink of it…

Sonic had to fall off the walking mountain. It would get him otherwise. And though the lazer did not give off any heat it had to be something nasty.

The blurting lazer stopped and the machine monster lumbered towards him as soon as he hit the floor. The odor of the lazer was still thronging in the air and it made his eyes water.

He knew that smell.

The creature opened its mouth once he was clear in sight. The horns bulged with iridescent light. The treble beam plunged down at him like caved lightening in the same ominous line and Sonic struggled to get away. The tail alighted too and another beam added to his panic and frenzy.

The smell…

Shadow…

The dead dragon.

As he turned to make a full circle, he knew what it was. The beams…the dazzling greens and whites coming from it - it was all _draconia_. It was all made out of the same stuff as his life star.

Why? Why?

Why is this beast here? With _draconia_?

He propelled himself into his spinning blue ball. His quills tightened. And then like a sledge hammer he struck the behemoth straight in the side. The creature hummed with damage. Cracks jutted like wrinkles down from its wound. Sonic came spinning out the other side, landing just a few feet from it, only for his legs to suddenly give out. He fell to his knees and elbows, coughing thickly. He peered up and was quite pleased with the little hole he had made. The creature appeared to be quite soft inside, with only cables, wires and carbon fiber within, merely to hold _draconia_ and nothing else. The outside was a solid husk of metal slab, making it look more formidable than it actually was.

"Nice! Take that you...you bastard!"

For a moment he thought of Shadow. Where's the new hero when you really need him?

The monster came charging. Austere draconia shimmered into four lasers and each scorched the earth in long lines after him. Sonic got up and ran, coughing as he did his best to dodge, not sure if he wanted to keep fighting. He remembered Shadow saying something about not touching this stuff. Well it was lasers. They usually burned your arms off anyway - but if it did break the magic of his star…

Tails came in from behind the robot, slamming down with his rounds at it, thumb on the trigger. Not letting up. The dragon machine barely bothered with the plane as it homed in after the hedgehog who almost ran headlong into a thick, pulsing laser as it cornered round for him. He braked just in time, raking up long black streaks in the earth, before almost pelting into another.

"Attack it! Attack it!" Sonic snapped at himself. He leveled and aimed himself at the monolith. But as he did so the nastiest beam of all washed out of its mouth and consumed the very air before him. He bounced back and a third laser lathered close to his back, missing him by a hair.

He was losing control and energy, fast.

The monster reticently lowered its head and a shower of bullets came plummeting down like shrapnel. Sonic cried and ran and rolled, doing anything in his power to avoid getting hit. The biplane stroked the robot's attention for but a moment as the bullets started wounding the dragon.

Sonic was panting on all fours, mouth and nose dribbling blood. He had overtaxed himself. His mind was webbed with sticky fog that wouldn't go away. The coughs tore into his lungs.

An insurmountable tail thundered into the ground a good hundred yards from him, but it still made the floor under his feet shudder enough to send him flying. He landed hard, but quickly rolled out the way just before a laser raced past his ear.

Jumping back to his feet he ran towards the cliffs…and the sea.

Again the beast chased him. It made little noise. It just let its own robotic body do the groaning and clanging as the gears pulled and moved.

Close enough to the cliffs, Sonic zigzagged up and down the very edges as the lasers tore and jostled the earth into mesh. The beast wobbled up after him and with a hefty swing of its head, it connected with the fleeing hedgehog (who was too busy dodging lasers) and sent Sonic somersaulting into the air, screaming. When he hit the floor he was out of it for fifty heartbeats. He managed to come back round with a shake of his head, looking back at the approaching dinosaur of metal. The lasers were coming again. They looked a lot like Robotnik's tentacles when they had come after him. They attacked in a similar way. Over and over until he got too weak to defend himself.

Arching up like pillars of celestial light, the lasers raced forth, faster than any pasha and Sonic jumped away just in time before they hit. Blood was drooling down his shoulder. But he had to beat it, in fear of the beast finishing him off for good and then turning to slaughter everything it came across. Including his friends.

More pellets hit the beast from the side as Tails drew in close to maul it, his plane trailing a heft cloud of thick, blackish smoke. The dragon robot reared up on two legs, a blistering stream of white hitting the left wing. Tails' plane screamed over them, haphazardly wavering unnaturally in the air as he headed back towards Feral Woods. It was going to crash.

"Tails! I'm coming!" Sonic rolled up into a ball with new strength from his reserves and cut into its right foreleg. It tried to rear up to avoid him but was too slow. Sonic circled back. The lasers had stopped and for that he was glad. Then he went and cut the right hind leg. The beast, unable to balance, gave out an earthy roar and fell right over the edge of the cliff. Sonic landed close by and turned to watch it spill down into the hungry ocean waters. He didn't see its tail. With a smash it hit him in the back with a last sweep before it followed the rest of its metal body. Sonic spun across the ground, unable to stop himself. At last he hit the brink of the cliff and hung on to the end desperately with his hands. His feet dangled in the air. The breath of the sea came up to ruffle and tease his fur. Seconds later a splash of seawater smothered him from head to tail when the beast at last met the waters and was swallowed instantly, creating huge waves as it met the angry surface.

Nothing was left of it now and the ocean seemed to erase all trace of it.

Sonic gulped and clung like death onto the margin of earth on the very lip of the cliff. He tried to heave his way up before the terra at his fingertips gave under his weight. His body ran with hot sweat while his guts and stomach turned to cold ash. He was terrified.

He clung, shivering, face pale. He wasn't going to die like this! After all the efforts Knuckles and Shadow had to go through to save him that winter.

He wasn't!

"No!"

Sonic threw one arm up in front and grabbed anything with his hands. A tuff of grass had to do. He hauled himself up, inch by gracious inch. It was getting harder. His head was swimming sickly and he struggled to breathe past the pain in his chest.

Below him the sea sang gleeful, irritable songs of death and misery. The gulls clacked out their tunes like a circus of mocking Arbiters. Even the sun seemed to grin down on the blood coating his fur in shiny red.

Sweating, cursing, breathing, Sonic clawed himself back over the grassy verge of the cliff and lay, panting in the sun. He knew he shouldn't be lingering. He should be off to help Tails… see if he was okay, making sure everyone else was all right, and checking to see if another one of those things had been birthed someplace.

Truth was, he felt like going to sleep.

To rid himself of such a loving desire, Sonic struggled up on his knees and cradled his raw arm. The sickly stench of blood made his head swim again and he had to hold still for several heartbeats until it passed.

Right now finding Tails was the only thing that begged his body to remain awake. Every part of him bled with worry. He hadn't heard a crash, but the robot's stomping attacks had drowned everything out. "Please Tails, be okay. Wait for me. I'm a 'coming, little buddy…"


	10. The Hoolars Clan

**Dib07: **Me again. Happy Christmas to all and a Happy New Year if we all survive the impending 2012 Mayan predicated-disaster of course! I won't be updating until next year, and it'll be busy for all of us, so I hope you all have a great time. As for the 'I'll Be Right Here' continuation, there hasn't been enough votes, and I don't really have time to be pursuing another story, so I am still undecided. I've been like that a lot lately. Anyway, that's enough from me, and best of health to all. Here's the last part until next time:**  
><strong>

_xxxxxxxxx_

**Chapter 10: The Hoolars Clan**

_'In this still place, remote from men,_

_Sleeps Ossian, in the narrow glen;_

_In this still place, where murmurs on_

_But one meek streamlet, only one:_

_He sang of battles, and the breath_

_Of stormy war, and violent death.'_

_Glen Almain - Selected poems of Wordsworth_

_xxxxxxxxxx  
><em>

Sonic walked into the Arbiter jungle that was insurmountably close to Eolith: the home to nightmares, bloodshed and misery. He knew he had to find Tails' crashed plane quickly, and rescue his brother before unwelcome guests were drawn to the site as well. He was sure that the plane's uncharted descent would have attracted some healthy attention.

Exhausted, Sonic limped through the undergrowth, not caring if his young voice was heard as he shouted for his sibling. He cupped his hands to his mouth and hollered his name into the forgotten recesses of a dark, unwelcome jungle.

There were signs of a crash, thus telling Sonic that he was on the right track. Branches from trees had been snapped off, leaving the forest in a mess. The plane must have gone in quite deeply and at speed. Ripping into nature like an asteroid from hell.

"Tails!" His coughs were getting annoying. It made his temper spike. "Tails! Answer me!"

The forest was terribly dark, lonely and gigantic. The trees bore down upon him as if they were threatening to suffocate all daylight out of his reach. He tripped and tumbled to the dirt floor from scuffing on a stone. His energy was fading fast, leg muscles aching. He slammed his fist into the ground and chiseled it harder into the brackish mud, delivering all his anger into it. "Fucking body!" He cursed at himself. Tails was lost somewhere. Probably hurt. And he could barely walk without a crutch. "Shadow! If you can read my mind, then read this! Get down here and help Tails!" He lurched his fist hard enough into the ground to crunch his knuckles. "Sonic…you fool…get up. Just get up."

Day turned to evening. Red light scarpered through the trees like blood.

Slowly becoming too weak and dizzy, Sonic ended up circling back on himself, no longer in the right mind to track or scent for clues or to find a certain red fox. He limped through areas he had already been in without realizing it and getting more lost and confused as the darkness grew. He knew he couldn't give up. He'd keep searching until something inside him gave.

He saw something. A beast of some kind, lurking beyond the berry bushes like some black adder waiting to snap slithering in the folds of vision. His first suspicion was a lone Arbiter. And he didn't want to mess with one today.

But the creature smelt his blood and came charging up the small hill with frightening haste. Sonic yelped and lashed out with a panicked kick just as the dark creature lunged fearsome jaws at him. He landed a precise hit on its side as it turned to avoid him, but it took the impact with little effect and approached him from the flank. Sonic ducked, ready to trip it up, but instead it stopped and grabbed onto his shoe with its large teeth. Then with enough strength to rival Knuckles, it tossed him down the elevation and into the trunk of an ash tree. Unsteady with fatigue and blundering coughs, he was too slow to move out of the way when it came thrashing down upon him. It whacked him down with a meaty swipe and garbled with victorious grunts and scowls like a rabid wolf. Sonic tried to shake the gloating stars dancing around his head. He turned to peer round at his attacker just as a flash of silver moonlight bathed the monster's features. His mouth gaped in surprise. It was a hedgehog. A large, heavily-built brown hedgehog with claws and jaws the size of a lion's.

"Wait! Stop!" Sonic hissed, pinning his ears back. "Stay away!"

The stalking monstrosity halted slightly, its long sharp nose greedily sniffing the air. "You're bleeding. Let me guess, you've been fighting your Arbiter friends for dominance and you lost!"

Its voice growled menacingly and the burly paws at the end of its muscular arms clenched into tight fists.

"No! I'm not an Arbiter!"

"Sure you're not." The hedgehog stepped over and pinned Sonic's tail down with his boot.

"No, no, really! Don't you recognize me?" Sonic cried in mirrored hostility. "I'm Sonic the hedgehog!"

"Who's he? I haven't heard of any hedgehog by that name…and you're the strangest hedgie I've ever seen. Why's yer fur blue?"

"Because…urgh! Forget it and let me go! I was attacked and I gotta find my friend! He's in a plane and it crashed! Please!"

The large male hedgehog scowled a little more into a heavily furred frown. "With those wounds on your arm you won't be getting far anywhere." He retreated a pace, giving Sonic's tail back. "You ain't dressed or smell much like a forerunner follower anyway." He continued thoughtfully. "But you turn on me or my clan and you will be ripped to pieces."

Sonic nodded, "just…just help me find my friend, Tails Miles. He's a small red fox with two tails. He crash landed somewhere around here."

"I'll do one better. If you are who you say you are and you respect me, I'll find your friend for you. Friends are hard to come by these days. So let me worry about finding this Tails…but you can come with me first. In your state you'll only attract the enemy."

The blue blur rose slowly back to his feet and the other animal noticed the elusive star on his chest now that he wasn't in instant frenzy mode. His small, feral red eyes constricted at the brightness of it. But…strangely, the hedgehog didn't ask about it. Well, not yet.

"My name is Hockweed." The brown hedgehog said. "So where are you from?"

"Faux Forest."

"That's a long way's from 'ere. So why are you in this place full of Arbiters?"

"I - I -" His whole mind was stammering. "I can't remember. I think I was just exploring - trying to find a back way into Eolith." Yeah, that had to be it. But he couldn't think straight anymore. All he was concerned about was finding Tails. Everything else was muggy and unimportant besides.

"Eolith? Never heard o' that place. Come wit' me then and we'll talk later."

Sonic couldn't help but prostate. This odd, large predatory hedgehog was probably going to take him to some barbaric, cannibal clan and rip him apart. And if he died, then no one would rescue Tails. No one knew where they were because they hadn't told anybody a thing, including Sally.

This was going from bad to worse.

The journey through the close, hostile forest didn't take long. He was taken to a river with a small waterfall rushing into it. The large hedgehog led him to the waterfall and beckoned him on. Sure enough, behind the waterfall was a rocky ledge and a hole further on. Hockweed went in first, with Sonic slipping in behind. The roar and spit of the water echoed wetly down the short tunnel in throaty, guttural songs. Hockweed made a left turn down a small tunnel, (Sonic guessed that it must have been built at some point) and out of the river bank further up where there were fences, posts and little wooden sheds. And Sonic was still startled to see more stalwart, bulky hedgehogs. All of whom had long teeth, razor-sharp fat quills, claws and muscles. Many even lumbering on all fours. The plainlore gait struck him as absurd and he almost double-backed into the tunnel. Hockweed smiled grimly. "Here is my clan. We are known as the Hoolars."

"Nice…little place you have here!"

"Hah yes. A little den. We have others of course, in this forest. Some secret, others more open than we'd like, like this one o' course. We constantly get into fights with our neighbours the Arbiters. But we give them something ta think about. We - as you can see, are different. We've lived and thrived in this forest for a long time. Before Robotnik. And here we evolved and lived different lives from the herb-eaters. We eat meat, carrion mostly. But now we dine on Arbiter flesh, for vengeance and strength. We have become more predatory. More adept to our challenges. And we are a proud, fearsome species." He gazed up and down at Sonic and scoffed. "It is hard to imagine we derived from such a scrawny species like you! Hah!"

Sonic grimaced. "Yeah…too bad." But what about Tails? With that thought in mind, he added nauseatingly, "What if a bad guy chases Tails down out there? We're wasting time and it's getting darker!"

"So? We'll find him. We know the forest well, inside and out. Don't you worry."

"Heh heh." He didn't feel particularly reassured at all. His urgency did not seem to touch on this creature at all and he tried his very best not to get angry.

Hockweed inclined his head and pointed to a shack beside a little barn. "We'll go there for any threads for your stitching. I hope you like needles." Without staying for a reply, the savage, hairy hedgehog began to walk through a little village of other hulking great hedgehogs.

Sonic went to step forward to follow him, but his left knee flopped like jelly and before he knew it he had hit the ground like a stone. He knew he was going to faint._ Aw shit not now! I need to find poor Tails! He's alone out there! I gotta find him! This isn't fair! If only I was…I was…_

On that last thought, he passed out.

The snow was falling down. Filling the uncouth sky in their blessings. The whine of the cart wheels was a stout, institutive lullaby that he always woke to or fell asleep to. They were everything, that and Shadow and Red's footfalls as they travelled. The furs that he lay upon were warm and snug. He tried to not let the slowness of the cart get to him. It was a long way, and his friends had to walk it.

As much as he wanted to go forwards in life, he had never wanted to go back home so bad to be with the ones he loved in his life.

Knuckles came up to him as the cart still moved. The frost on his eyebrows looked comical. "Hey, you coming around, Bluey?"

Sonic stirred awake, ears arching back, eyes cracking open. He was sleeping snuggled on his side into a ball. He wasn't sure how long he had been out for. But he could smell pinewood amid heavy animal odors that felt oppressive and alien to him. He wasn't trapped in the back of a roofless cart. There was no malicious snow. No endless journey. The relief swept through his body and he almost felt like crying from the joy.

"Hey, bluey."

Sonic's eyes travelled from the soft, warm pillow into the eyes of a large, strong hedgehog who still looked more like some abominably disfigured wolf with long, elegant quills. Sonic's ears pricked forwards and he rose, rubbing the sleep from his eyes while the thick blanket slipped down his shoulders."Haven't decided to eat me yet? Decided I was too bony? I thank my lucky star."

It was a cozy little place. Opaque walls made the room, though the plaster was wrinkled in spider web cracks from the damp and the changing heat from the hearth. Hockweed had four plain, beech wood chairs, a table and cupboards stacked with foods and herbs.

"Eat you? Don't be daft, blue-one. Careful ho' you go from now on, and don't get into any more fights." The strange hedgehog said with a distinct frown that could have been something like disapproval. "I've stitched your wounds up I 'ave. Used a bit of old thread. You'll need someone to pull it out after about a week once yer injuries are on the mend though."

Wide-eyed, Sonic gave a flat, meaningless nod. Threads? Stitches? "Where under Dowa's stars am I?"

"A place. A safe one."

"Well, thanks for fixing me up. That was very…good of you."

Another hedgehog, as large and as cumbersome as Hockweed, came in through the open doorway with a plate. Her fur was a grassy green and her eyes were red like the other male.

She fragrantly looked over at him as if afraid of his odd color, and then bowed in a little polite curtsy.

"My name is Ilon." She said with a tender, but nervous smile. He wondered how such a big, strong animal such as herself could be frightened, even by a bit, of him. "What's yours?"

Sonic smiled openly back at her. He admittedly liked her a tiny bit more than the other boisterous hogs he'd seen. Her voice was pretty and her eyes held a shade of open friendliness.

"Sonic the hedgehog. Nice to meet you." He bit his lip at the blandness of his reply, but she merely grinned happily and put down the plate on the bed beside him. It was a tasty meal of wild strawberries, elderflower and two slices of honey bread. She also left him a drink of lemon and ginger.

"Thank you!" Sonic said, forcing meaning into his reply. He involuntarily induced her to perform another heartfelt bow and she popped back out the door again. Now back to the business at hand…his smile faded. "Look…"

"Hockweed."

"Hockweed. Thanks for everything, really. But I really must be going. My buddy, Tails is out there! I gotta help him! I can't just sit here!"

"My scouts found the plane. It was empty of passengers. There was no blood or a body," he added when he saw Sonic tense, his eyes diluting, "but the crash was pretty catastrophic. You animals rode in that thing?"

"Yeah. All the time."

"Anyway, the trackers reckon this Tails of yours spent some time wondering the forest, presumably looking for you. Then he circled back, tried fixing the plane. Only to head south-east when he heard us coming. But we'll find him. He can run, so I'm sure he's fine."

He nodded, not totally relieved because he didn't have Tails here, now, beside him. But pleased, very pleased that the kitson was alive. He wanted to hug that fox until he couldn't breathe. And then, it slowly dawned on him how Tails must have felt when he was taken to the Panacea caves. The separation had affected him a lot. Hence the unhealthy attachment Tails had developed.

"Sonic," Hockweed for some reason found his name a little hard to say, "I know that star of yours so don't try to deny it."

"All right then. I won't. But how do you know 'bout it?"

"Way back, when I was young, me and my brothers were fighting the gorillas when times were hard and the dragons prevented us from living peaceful lives. Everywhere was war and hatred. The forerunners angered and oppressed all manner of species back then. So the gorillas turned on us and we battled long and hard. Much blood was spilled. We were chased back from our homes. A lot of us died or were captured for meat, or sold as slaves to the great and tyrannical forerunners. But my brother had been hurt. A bullet had ripped into his skull and into his brain. We couldn't get it out. And he was living - barely. A dragon swept among us when we were trying to move him away from danger. The creature was covered in blood and wounds. Its blood dripped onto our comrade before it plunged into the forest to die. Later, he came round. Brolire was his name. And a white shining star glowed like ice on his forehead. And he was well again. We praised it all as a miracle. But later, bad things started happening.

"He started having nightmares. Then he would dream while he was awake and scream so terribly he would alert any patrolling gorillas and we would be forced to run or fight again. In the end we shunned him, branding him a curse. He brought nothing but bad luck to us and we have always been a suspicious, paranoid race of creatures. That very instinct has been keeping us alive. Brolire never left of course. He had nowhere to go and no one would go near him. He would stay near our boundaries, lingering like the outcast he was. We all noticed that he started getting rashes on his body. Like sunburn marks on his groin and legs. Then he'd do nothing but sleep, and never eat. Later he died. Suddenly, and for no reason. We believed that the star pushed back death for a given time. And then death found Brolire."

Sonic shrugged, a little daunted but not a whole lot. But his steel, dull eyes shone threateningly for a moment. "If it wasn't for this star I would have died instantly anyway. It doesn't matter what becomes of it, as long as I do what's right for the others."

"Aha. Think yourself lucky then."

"I do."

"So, tell me why I found you in this forest."

"I thought I had." He replied indifferently.

"Not all of it. You are a strange, short-furred beast. You smell of open air and green valleys. Not fungus-ridden woods and dark bottomless chasms of old."

The blue hedgehog leant back and popped a strawberry into his mouth from the plate at his bedside. It was deliciously fresh and sweet. "Me and my friends have been fighting the Arbiters for years now. They keep getting stronger and we knew these - these bastards had an Empire. But we never knew where. Turns out it's here, in your very dark jungle of a place. And one last little forerunner lives in their dark empire. And she calls her old war factory Eolith. And she's there now, plotting on that throne of hers. Thinking on how she's going to rule the world. Animals can't do that, so she thinks. Animals can't bargain, strategize or lead. So she thinks all of Mobius is just for her, left by her dear father Dr. Robotnik…" He got bad chills from saying the name. Was it from premonition? Memories? What?

"Sonic?" Hockweed's earthy, husky voice brought him back round, "are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine." He had been holding his head, and he quickly snapped back to reality.

"I know what you're saying. Arbiters live here. They have for many decades. And some of us have got close enough to see their - their Eothith. But some of us got captured and were never seen again. I was hoping - I was hoping we'd never hear of another forerunner ruling us ever again."

"I'm sorry to bring the bad news."

"No - no I'm glad you did. We can't live ignorant all our lives. That's why nearly all the dragons died. After they lost the war. They thought they were unbeatable. And when other dragons clans cried for help – no other dragons ever came to assist them." His voice growled in sadness. "We can't ever become them. Ever. And if a forerunner from Robotnik's kin is alive and the Arbiters serve them as they did the Doctor, then we are doomed."

"No we won't. Not if we all fight together. This morning I fought something - I don't know what it was but it was big and walked like a mountain. This forerunner has powers, but this one is young, weak and inexperienced and has no clue as to what she is up against. The forerunner has Arbiters, yes, but you have me."

"You?" He barked in hoary laughter. "What can you do?"

"Be the miracle we've always needed."

_An insane miracle. But I can try._

The wreckage of the plane was a fine centre-piece for an overlander movie. Its crumpled metal chassis had been skewered most modestly into a clump of iron trees that had done all in their solemn, motionless power to slow its wicked diversion into their midst. Like a plunged angel blasted from the skies, it had now settled to rest in the cradle of woodland like a soon-to-be relic.

Sonic grabbed hold on the edge of the wing that had bent towards the ground at an angle due to the plane's sideways turn into earthly depths. Hauling himself up it, he used it as leverage to gain access to the pilot's cockpit. His starlight glimmered upon its interior that had taken on a few more leaves than what was normal, and some dozen branches too. Sonic yanked some of them out, endeavoring to find a hapless fix beneath the pile. But there was no young brother. What did relieve Sonic somewhat from mental breakdown was that there was no blood on the edges of broken glass or on the fabric of the interior itself, which offered up some hope.

"Search the area." Sonic turned to them, disregarding their size, strength and numbers. "Find him."

Hockweed's clan of five departed at once, leaving the plane in a rippling circle that sprung outward to comb through the region. Weary, Sonic clambered down the metallic plane, struggling to hold back the tears. Tails couldn't have gone far. But now, more than ever he knew exactly what Tails had been telling him up in that tree before they had set off for Eolith in the first place. Forced separation.


	11. A Goddess is Rising

**Dib07: Hiya guys, here is another update as promised! I am not quite sure what else to say other than enjoy! :)**

**xxx**

**Chapter 11: A Goddess is Rising**

' _- Nasty reap of freaks forsaken_

_And when sultry Dusk disrobes they'll learn_

_She is not a natural blonde_

_For the lower She goes the darker it grows_

_An Eve that blows on Her knees for Satan.'_

_Cradle of Filth - Tearing the Veil from Grace_

**_xxx_**

"Shadow, hold still."

He did. He wouldn't budge. He trusted her, he supposed. She was growing be to like a mother to him. Like how Maria was a mother to him when he was born in the Ark decades ago. That was who she kept reminding him of, whenever he touched, spoke or turned to him. Her soft eyes would be hard sometimes, like granite, and he's shy away because he didn't want to make her mad. He wanted her love; he wanted the comfort he could give because he was so terribly lonely on the inside. Since Maria's death long, long ago he had started to cope without her as time moved on, but then Sonic got sick, and that loneliness seemed to peg back onto him again and this time there was no shaking it off. And then Elva came, soothing away his troubles little by little like a songbird heralding the spring after a dark, terrible winter.

Forerunners were gentle creatures really. Misunderstood. Feared and oppressed. Maybe males were too aggressive. Maybe males were consumed on plotting. Wars and domination. Robotnik had been insane. But females - oh how gentle!

Queen Elva knelt down to his level and swiftly slit his thumb with a small knife. The berry rich blood oozed out and drooled down his hand in a single strand. The girl tipped a flask of toxic, rare _draconia _on the cut and at once the flesh closed up and the wound had healed. There was no trace of scarring. Only the line of blood down the palm of his hand. Shadow stared at his own hand.

"See?" She smiled faintly as her black hair dangled down her face. She was wearing a different perfume today. Lavender and hyssop. With a hint of cranberry. "What did I tell you? It heals anything really, in seconds. Ha - the wonders of dragons! Of course, it is an element that still needs further study, not even I have all the data yet…"

Shadow didn't ask how she had managed to get the blood. He didn't want her love and comfort to be frozen over by suspicion and anger. He knew he should have asked. It wasn't like the dragons _just_ handed her their blood.

She stroked behind his ears. He loved that. "What I do know, is that if the wound or illness is terminal, the _draconia _holds and hosts it. And creates a mark. It isn't infringed with bad luck as the lore goes. It's toxic, yes, and the power affects the host over time, but bad luck! Ha!" She stood back up and walked to the table where they had been eating earlier. Her long ebony silk dress trailed along the floor behind her like long, cankered wings.

"Queen Elva, how do - where do you keep getting all this meat?"

They had recently eaten steak with all the vegetable trimmings. Every time he came here they had either pot roast, ducklings, brisket or bacon. Puddings were sometimes jelly, apple pies or lemon cakes. Elva must have had a lot of good Arbiter cooks to get food tasting this good. Shadow hadn't tasted good meat since his time up in the Ark a year or so ago, and even then the meat tasted of the freezer, and it wasn't soft or tasty. He couldn't hunt back on Mobius while being friends with Sonic and the others, so he had reluctantly gone to being a vegetarian.

"Oh well, I have my sources." She looked bored of the subject. She wouldn't mention that the Arbiters had to slaughter their own for her palate. She was worried he'd detest the idea and abandon her, or force her to change her diet. She still needed him after all.

And she just _loved _meat.

"Anyway," Shadow began a little uncomfortably as she peered at her black nails, "I am sure Sonic won't join us. But all the freedom fighters are on your side now. I have arranged that the Arbiters can come and go in Faux Forest and share what we have. I'm also spreading the message across the world that all wars are over using birds and fast cheetahs; that now you are going to heal what Robotnik has damaged and all will be well again."

"Good. Good."

"But Sonic says -" He hastened on, worried and fearful, "says you'll change. That - that forerunners have a tendency to become - to become -"

She wrapped him in a hug and whispered into his ear, "Has the thought ever crossed your mind that Sonic could be wrong? If your people don't embrace me and Robotnik's technology, you might never ever evolve and adapt? You'll die out and that's just what he wants. Humans - I mean, forerunners don't destroy things on purpose, dear Shadow of mine. We were just pushing out the old to make room for the new. No caterpillar can be a marvelous butterfly in a day."

"Yes - yes. If only he'd see it too."

"Yes. But I tire of Sonic. He is just one hedgehog really. But I have you. You are my future and we will rule always. A world where it is only us. Now." She took him by the hand and led him to another room, brighter than the first. And there, suspended in glass cylinders were all seven of the chaos emeralds. It had been so long since Shadow had seen them all gathered in the same place. _So long. _He almost melted at the sight and allure of them all, glinting to him at once.

"I have all seven now. There were a few accidents and mishaps. It took longer than estimated. But I have them. I have them now. And soon, when a few of my other projects are done, we'll wipe this world clean and start again. And Shadow?"

"Yes, my Queen?"

"Would you do anything for me? Anything?"

"Yes. Anything and everything, so long as Mobius has its peace."

She smiled and saw in him the truth. "Good. Now I have more plans for you."

He nodded; feeling ready and up for whatever was to come; to help her reign a pure, unhindered reality, where darkness, strife and evil were all but taboo.

He wanted everything the way it was before Robotnik ruined it all.

"There is a new set of Arbiter armour for you in your own room I devised next door to mine." His chest swelled with pride. "And," she continued, "You'll need a gun, or whatever weapon you prefer. I know your favorite is the Walter p90." She saw him grinning like a child, "So I have some of those in your closet. You'll find it on the wall next to your own library section. Now, listen carefully. On the east side of my base, beyond the thicker part of the forest is a station. In that station is a huge metal door that will open in approximately two hours. Out will come a gun launcher which will be full of the chemical I will purge out onto the whole of Mobius starting from here with the power boast of my emeralds. I want things to go smoothly and without trouble. I want you to protect the weapon which is called EOD. The Arbiters I don't - _can't_ fully trust. They are cumbersome, pea brained mammals but I know _you _can do any job for me without question. Protect it until it goes off."

"Is it dangerous? In close proximity I mean?"

"What did I say? You'll obey me without question." Her voice rattled into something more sinister and vile. Something dark within, like a snake poking out of a rabbit burrow. Then the hiss was gone and she'd smile back at him like an angel. "Now, run along. Your room is J77 down the allocated corridor when you leave here. Everything will be explained to you by Scarre, my little lion Arbiter."

_A lion huh? _Shadow thought. Lions had been extinct for over seventy years. They were an open species who lived on plains and flat valleys. They were all burned because they'd rather fight than hide against the forerunners of the days of old. Ironic really. Killed by everything. Dragons and the forerunners. Because they simply - well - got in the way.

"All right. I'll saddle up. What about the -" _Oh yeah - no questions. _"Never mind, your highness. Nothing will stop EOD from happening."

"Good. Before you go, one more thing. The emeralds will be safe with me. I'll distribute them where necessary to protect them. EOD has a very sophisticated energy supply high up in the longest tower of my base. There are three rare power cores that keep EOD running from a distance, so that tampering with the gun on the ground will have no effect. It is well guarded. I have that place covered. And you - you will be backed up with Arbiters back at the main gun to make sure it does its job as I intend it. Now go."

And go he did.

As instructed and with pride and determination beaming in his bright, thirsty red eyes, he blasted down the metal corridor with his powerful hover boots and to a door that was labeled J77 in italics. He opened it with a push and stared at the room in startling disbelief.

To the far left in its own room was a plush bed complete with stark white bed sheets, pillows and frame and there were two cupboards and a decorative pink lamp. On the floor was the pelt of a polar bear for a snug carpet; another rare, if not extinct animal.

He had his own kitchen. Lounge with a TV - a TV! And lastly a proper forerunner bathroom with running faucets, a sparkly clean toilet and bath. In the lounge he found the miniature library and the closet bursting to full with guns, magazines, ammunitions belts and shotgun shells. She had all the guns he was familiar with back at the Ark; handguns. Revolvers. Uzi's.

"Dear God Almighty -"

There was a draw beneath the guns on the bottom of the closet. He opened it, more amused and inundated at the sight of swords and daggers of different sizes and lengths. How had she acquired so much? So well?

He chose his Walter p90, the only automatic one handed gun he trusted and loved. He took a few magazines and the ammunition belt, face beaming with stupid grins. This was going to be easy!

He suddenly faltered a tad. "What am I protecting EOD from?" He glanced nervously around himself: confirming that he was alone and that no CCTV cameras were regarding him from above. Then he shook his doubts away. He was sure Elva knew what she was doing.

Atop one of the shelves alongside grenades and flash bombs was a pure gold, emerald studded crown. Intrigued, he pulled it off the shelf and studied it in his hands.

"A King -" He murmured thoughtfully. "A King of Mobius. What a dream - what a fantasy - yet here I am - so close to actually being one!" This was his destiny! This was who he was! To be ruler! After all this time! Before he didn't have a purpose. Didn't know what he was supposed to do. He didn't want to be a plain defender of Mobius forever and steal Sonic's job. No - this was it!

_Finally!_

He suited up. The armour was mostly leather but his chest sheathing was polished metal. What went over his cuffs, thighs and flank was all padded leather. And when he opened his door to go out he met Scarre, a white lion with a fluffy blonde mane. He too was covered in armour.

"Come, sir," he said through thick teeth, "I will escort you to EOD. Time is short. The cleansing of the planet is nigh."

"What will Elva do after everyone on this planet is cured of sickness and injury?"

"She will govern all continents and islands. She will send us and a fleet of robots around the globe for permanent conquest and re-establish all of Robotnik's old bases and repair them. Then every bit of land will be watched and monitored and thus controlled. Nothing will go out of her sight and peace will be eternal."

"Pure domination." Shadow wearily said.

"Exactly. No more wars. Everything will be controlled. If any rebel her, they will be silenced."

"Then let's get this show on the road." Shadow said with a daunting smile, "we can't keep our ladyship waiting. Let's move, Scarre!"

xxx

Lady Elva smiled thinly. She fitted a fine black helmet lined with decorative purple swirls over her head. It had a long open visor for her eyes so that she could see out of it. A carbon nilfrate cape trailed behind her that hummed with concentrated power. A small generator on her back housed two of the chaos emeralds. She had flicked through Robotnik's old generator designs and had improved them. It couldn't overload. If it did it would simply eject the emeralds or the contraction would simply detach itself from her back before imploding. And it was light to carry.

The tentacle design was a brilliant one. Robotnik's use of the long, flexible, tentacle soldiers looked deadly, uncouth and fast. But they were too heavy for her and the generator to hold, so she had to abandon the concept. She had _draconia _instead. And if anything stood in her way, she'd blast it to hell. The dragon blood's compounds had been reversed. Now anything it touched would start to rot and decay at once. Regardless. So even she had to be careful.

Four of her chaos emeralds were busy concentrating their energy into one single unit where the energies dripped into a vial that contained pure _draconia _and Shadow's DNA. Her drink of immortality would be ready - soon.

She picked up her purple sword. Down the blade it had been split to house a long straight energy laser within.

Everything was falling into place.

She grinned.

xxx

Shadow stalked alongside Scarre and Wound. Wound was a little large-eared bat who had been weighed down with so much armour that he looked like a limping beetle. In both hands he held revolvers.

Dozens of feral animals with bitter, dead faces loitered near the metal flat floor in a rounded stone section of the station outside Eolith. A red flashing light started beaming against the stonework and a female voice commenced EOD's arrival. The shutter doors on the ground started to open smoothly.

"Alarm! Attack!" Cried an Arbiter who was pointing his blade towards the mouth of the temple. A small army of large, burly hedgehogs were trotting towards them. Some of the beasts were lolloping at a run on all fours like bears.

"Hold!" Shadow yelled, his dark voice harrowing into an echo in the temple. He pulled on his face helmet and three long blades of metal covered his main back spines. He swayed near the front of the temple to meet this gathering of beasts. The approaching hogs slowed and then stopped one by one. A large, yellow furred male sauntered out of the main body of the group, swinging his beefy arms and growling menacingly.

Shadow, totally unafraid, stepped out to meet it. "Halt." He commanded stridently as soon as the yellow beast was ten paces in front of him. "I do not know why you _monsters _have come, whatever you are, but I advise you to turn back now."

The yellow beast grinned, showing his long, predatory teeth. "We ain't turning back now, you o' heathen! We know what you en' that Overlander are doin' swine!"

A few other large hedgehogs, male and female alike, beckoned behind him with primal screeches and hoary grunts.

"We're doing what should have been done a long time ago. We're saving the planet."

"From wha?" He snapped, shaking his head and wobbling his little yellow beard and whiskers, "You - you going ta' kill us all! Outlaws! We've stood back too long! All o' ya! Followin' the wrong leaders of ol'! Now we have seen the light and we aren't going to ignore this anymore!"

"What the fuck are you going on about?" Shadow stepped forward and pointed his Walter at the hedgehog."Now you and your buddies turn around and go back home. If you don't, I and the loyal Arbiters will kill you and everyone else who gets in our way!"

"No. No. We fight. Overlanders kill. So we shall kill those who follow dem.' You use weapons. You mean to kill us. We stop it here! Machines never did anyone any good! And now you arm the gun! We are not stupid! Disarm it or we'll fight!"

This creature hadn't even asked what the weapon did. But Shadow guessed that these 'hogs' simply didn't care. They wanted it gone simply because it was forerunner.

"No." Shadow returned simply, smiling a tad.

Eyes flashing dangerously, the muscular hedgehog used its short legs to jump at Shadow, but with one bullet he shot it straight in the eye and it fell dead.

The others howled angrily and charged.

"Arbiters!" Shadow shouted, "Attack!"

* * *

><p><strong>Dib07<strong>: If you want to know when another update is due, check out my DA page. Thanks for reading! :) (Urabu on DeviantArt)


	12. Sonic, take my advice

**Dib07:** I know this story didn't win the vote, but I thought I'd treat you all to something a little special, and as this story was runner-up, it can make a little outing. Sorry for the long-ass updates again. This story really deserves to be finished on my profile. It is one of my favourites after all. Anyway, Dib, signing out!

**Chapter 12: Sonic, take my advice**

xxx

_'I gotta do this. Have faith in me. This is my battle.'_

_Sonic – Panacea_

_xxx_

A diminutive cry resounded through brittle woods that were silent in their reply. Plainlore creatures of another world shot up from their foraging, focused on the noise, and then vanished into thicker foliage.

A leaf snapped from an oak branch and spiraled its way down to meet a patina of mushrooms.

"Tails!"

There would be a frequent pause, and just as the iron curtain of silence began to close once more over the sheltered forest, there would be another barking shout just as piercing as the first: "Tails! TAILS!"

A small hedgehog meandered through the grass and towering vegetation that grew all around, creating secrets as dark as dens. He shambled forwards, ears pricked for a resounding answer. The strain of searching – and calling – had neatly pulled him through the stages of exhaustion. Now he felt like an elastic band pulled taut to the point of breaking.

Hockweed lumbered along beside him on all fours as his other members helped with the search. They had left the plane somewhere behind in the dense area: an area filled with stern silence and the rustle of cobwebs and trees.

The star shone bright, offering some illumination as they proceeded through worrying evening, and then onto night. Sonic seemed unaware of this vital help, for he could not have seen in the darkness without it. Hockweed and his clan however would not have needed it.

Cupping his hands round his mouth, Sonic stood still, straightened, and hollered angrily. "TAILS!"

Hockweed nudged him hard against the waist. "We've been out here all day, Sonic. You need rest."

"He could not have… vanished…" Then a thought occurred to him. "The trees! Of course! He might have ejected! He could have landed in the trees! Thanks Hockweed!"

The darker hoolar considered him for a moment with a curious glance, then shrugged his shoulders.

Sonic changed tactics and started looking up at the tall oaks and elms that crowned this ancient forest. Their dark, twisted shapes against the skyline brought on his headache, but he ignored it. His curious, uncanny light highlighted them one by one, liming them out of the bewitching darkness as he looked for a fox caught up in the branches. "TAILS!" He was filled with cold worry and some parts anger. Why wasn't Tails responding? Why was the forest merely staring back? "Dowa damn it!" He came up to a tree and struck his fist at its trunk, meaning to throw all his frustration at it. As his knuckles slammed against wood, a grave white explosion settled around him, causing Hockweed and his fellow warriors to scream and high-tail it. The tree Sonic had just hit flailed left and right, creaking like old elephant bones. Sonic retreated from charred earth, charred earth that ringed his last position. Feathery light wisps, like snow, cascaded down around him, and then vanished.

"What on Mobius…?" He clutched his chest, feeling sick. Either something had exploded and he was somehow unharmed, or he had… he had… "Did I just… do that?"

No. No way.

I'm just going insane is all. Yeah. That sounds better. I prefer insanity. Yup. I think I'm seeing snow too. Snow…

Thinking about snow brought back too real and too vivid memories of THE LAKE.

The trunk he had punched was smoking, and soft red embers crackled on the thick bark. Softly and slowly the hoolars raised their snouts above bush cover and watched him carefully for any other signs of combustion.

"Sonic…!"

The weak voice sounded like it was close.

Sonic's ears perked right up as his eyes tried to identify his friend through the vehement darkness. "Tails! I hear ya buddy! Keep talking! I'm coming!" He pointed his chest at various trees, and his beam of light followed suit, highlighting cupreous copses and long-limbed trees. There! Hidden high up in a tree was Tails. His parachute had deployed alright, but it must have snared and got blown away, for Tails was covered in its leavings of wires and string. He was caught up in-between a bough, way, way up. Perhaps fifty feet way up. The trees that grew here were old, undisturbed behemoths and had little need for restriction. And Tails was learning just how terrifying that could be.

Sonic looked up and approached the huge base of the oak. "Tails! Come down!" He was staggered with relief that the little kitson was safe! And he looked like he had all his limbs too! He looked a little bloodied, the light revealed that much, but other than that…

"I can't!" Came the meek return.

"Why not?"

"I… I hit my head pretty bad, Sonic! I can't see very well!" He had to shout to be heard, causing his rusty voice to crack. "I'm… I'm scared…"

"Don't be, little buddy! I'll get you down!"

Yeah, great plan, Sonic. He moaned to himself. Now what?

The hoolars were still watching from the sidelines. All except Hockweed. He began to climb out of the bramble looking spooked. Sonic ignored him. He didn't have time for them.

"Can you start to climb down real slow? I'll start making my way up to you. Sound good?"

"Sonic…!" Tails cried back, and it did indeed sound like he was crying for real. The crash had knocked him for six. He must have lain unconscious and uncomfortable in those forked branches up top, and Sonic's peculiar explosion must have wakened him.

Sonic began to tackle the branch but he was a complete novice at this. Usually he'd tackle most obstacles at speed, and zoom up this tree without the slightest hindrance. But that speed had gone, and even his limbs trembled with exertion as he began to carry himself into the first few branches. He was still too tired from tackling that draconia monster, and in reality he wasn't even supposed to be away from home. And Tails needed him.

He cursed himself. He cursed what he had become, but mostly, he cursed his inability to help his friend.

Hockweed watched with vague puzzlement on the face. Then he shook his head and approached the tree. Grappling the bark with his tough, longer claws, he started shimming up it like a bear, and in no time at all he had overtaken Sonic and was now in the middle branches and still making his sure way to the top. Sonic, feeling hot shame, retreated back to the ground, his ears sagging. But he still called encouragingly. "Hockweed's coming! It's okay, pal! He's a friend! I trust him!"

Tails watched with growing trepidation. He was stuck way up top with an enormous, dark hedgehog coming to embark on his 'rescue.'

Sonic growled at himself and tossed leaves into the air. First Shadow had rescued him from that gladiator arena, and now it was Hockweed who was rescuing Tails!

His pride was shattered; his ego was no longer able to float. What did he have left?

Shame. Guilt.

Yes, he supposed he had those.

He had those alright.

Hockweed's claws splintered through the bark heartily, ensuring great grip as he made his way upwards like a sure echidna. When he was high enough, cold, alien wind ruffled his limp spines and gruff, hoary fur. "Grab onto me, small fox! It's a bit of a drop, but I'll keep you safe, I will."

Tails looked at him, then at the long, dizzying ground, then back at Hockweed again.

Hockweed's eyes held him. "Go on now, fella." The large creature said, holding out a giant paw. "Hold on. Yer friend Sonic is awaitin' down below."

Tails hesitated another moment, then made up his mind and began to lean over to Hockweed but his many strings dangling from his backpack, arms and the loops round his middle caught on a branch or three and he was promptly jerked back. The momentum broke his balance and made him caper towards the edge: and towards that long, nasty void called THE DROP. Because he could not help himself, he shouted out the one animal who he could always depend on. "Sonic!"

Sonic heard the call, and tried to keep his light on the two of them in the tree top. He was almost bending over backwards to do this. "Tails! Keep calm!" He hollered back, then, to his terror he saw Tails try for the hoolar's paw, then get tugged back somehow until he was barely hanging into the edge of a forked branch. One foot slipped and broke out into open air. Tails' two tails were caught in string. No wonder the little fox had refused to fly!

"Dowa! Be careful!" Sonic slipped round towards the other side where he little buddy had slipped. Hockweed was trying to get closer, but he was too big and heavy. It made the tree sway, and his weight weakened the branches.

"I'm stuck!" Tails gasped. "I can't move!" As he was caught on the precipice, perhaps a loop of wire or string had got jammed in the tree, thus holding him to one place?

"Bite the string, Tails! Cut it, anything! And then jump! I'll catch you!"

Tails looked down at him, then had to look away because the glare of the star hurt his eyes. "Sonic…"

"Do you trust me, Tails?"

The fox cringed, dreading the answer because he knew what it would entail. "Y-Yes…"

"Then jump!"

Tails looked at Hockweed, knowing that if he scrambled to the hoolar, he would have to breech the spindly branches that promised risk than sanctuary.

So he did the instinctive thing.

He bit the string tying him to the branch, and he fell backwards at once. He flailed his arms in cartwheels as the world bowed and then flew about his head like crows. The massive tree shrank away from him. But he saw the light. The light of the star. It encompassed his world like a net, and before he knew it he pelted into Sonic's arms like a bullet, and felt the give as Sonic crumbled beneath him, and went backwards from the impetus. There was another thunk as they hit something, and then finally Tails stopped moving.

He immediately turned over and got off Sonic, who was surprisingly – unbelievably unharmed. A pastel shade of whiter light seemed to glow from him before it disappeared. Sonic smiled dumbly, an expression he usually used when he didn't know what else to do or say.

Tails hugged him fiercely.

"You really are hooked up like a fish in a net!" Sonic sheepishly began to laugh before breaking down into a deep barrage of coughs. Tails gave him a moment and patted his back worriedly, but the hedgehog didn't seem to care. "You're okay!" He told the kitson, "I thought I'd lost you!"

Hockweed was making his way down, and watched them share their glee.

Tails rubbed his sore head as Sonic began to untie or cut free the strings, especially those that bonded his twin tails together.

"How did you do that?" The kitson asked after awhile. "How did you protect yourself when I fell? And by the way, you're a pretty good catch!"

Sonic was still smiling as if he had found a secret within himself that he found too good to share. "Come on, Tails! You've known me long enough! My instincts are sharper than my thoughts sometimes! I could catch you in my sleep while eating an apple!"

"Yeah, yeah. So tell me, how'd you do it?"

"That's the thing. I didn't do anything." He cut back all the string holding his tails together, and next he began working on his arm. "Jeez, were you dancing when you parachuted from your plane? I didn't even see you parachute!"

Tails winced when a string of elastic sprung back and hit him on the nose. "Actually it was one of my newer designs. I called it 'stealth jump' so that when I parachuted I would be less…conspicuous. But turns out the parachute was too small and I didn't have the control I needed. So I slammed into the meanest oak in this whole area."

"You sure did!"

"Then I awoke when I saw a flash of light."

"Yeah… that." He choked up a few coughs and helped get Tails to his feet. "Do you remember that thing I was fighting before your plane went down? That monster of earth and draconia?"

Tails gave him a puzzled expression. "No. Should I?"

"No, it's fine, Tails. You should rest."

"You too. You look pretty tired."

"I do?"

"Yeah. When you're tired you look pretty pale."

"Seeing you way up in that tree made me pretty pale!"

They both looked at each other, then collapsed into laughter.

Hockweed came lumbering up to them on all fours. "You should rest awhile. Both of you. We have dens here that are more than able to cater for your needs."

A brief flicker of memory came to Sonic concerning a place he knew: a place he rested at when it was snowing heavily. But he could not place the name. Only the sadness the memory brought. "We will stay." Sonic said. "Thank you."

xxx

Wake up.

I control you.

There was never any escape.

The winter is still inside you.

The cold.

The sickness.

It's still there.

I control you.

Wake up.

Wake up.

xxx

The lake.

It shone dead, flat and icy cold. Unchanged.

Sonic woke in the middle of it, and saw the snowy banks stretching away from him on all sides. Even if he could have moved to reach him - he was much too scared.

The sky was filled with snow. It was falling: whirling down like frozen tears.

Robotnik's sharp, black profile regarded him with stiff, predatory solemnity. Beside him was an icy, empty grave. The snow had covered the headstone several inches thick.

"Sonic, you haven't cheated me out of my final victory yet."

The blue hedgehog watched the giant forerunner produce a thick, slow grin. "Robotnik."

"It's been too long. You must fill the grave. And put us both out of our misery."

Sonic tried to stand up on the thick ice but his sneakers couldn't gain any grip and he slid back to where he started.

Always he wanted to run. Run from his god forsaken nightmare. To bolt. Flee. Get the fuck out of here.

But he was stuck. Always stuck in the same old place.

"Why do I keep coming back to this place?"

Robotnik's grin stretched ever wider. A waft of pungent reek, of decayed meat, wafted into the air and Sonic coughed and wrinkled his nose. The forerunner ripped open his cape to show him his rotten insides.

"I am dead, little rodent. I am rotting. But I wait for your coming. You can't escape me, though you try. And I will be back. I will."

Sonic tried to scrabble forward as Robotnik's dark silhouette of fiends and nightmares started to fade, save for the bright, burning red eyes of sick evil and stupid hatred. The forerunner's shadow lisped into oily tatters that raced around the little hedgehog like rampant bats. Then the tatters whispered away. The ice lake melted into valleys of crude darkness until he lay there, crying. Soon he felt something nudging him. His ears drew back in worry and he opened his wet emerald eyes. He was in a leaf bed. It was Tails who was coaxing him awake.

"You… you were having a bad dream," he started worriedly as if Sonic might chastise him for bringing him out of his sleep, "you were… screaming."

Sonic furiously wiped the tears from his cheeks and sat up. "Is it snowing? Tails, is it snowing?" His demand was urgent: hysterical. He may as well have been asking if bombs were being deployed: such was his terror.

"No! No Sonic!" Tails returned gently, not removing his hands from his shoulders. "It's going to be a bright, clear morning I think. Besides, it's not winter. You're safe!"

"Safe…" He muttered vacantly as if trying to catch the meaning of the word for himself. He looked about him, almost half forgetting where they were.

They were inside a warm hoolars den. There was no breezy draught and there was a carpet woven out of weeds, furniture made out of the softest woods and a little hearth burning away beside Sonic's bed. Also there were wooden shelves on the stone walls that were full of pots containing honey, salt, brine, peppers of all kinds, spines, mustards, and jams. It was homely, just as Hockweed's place had been.

"How long have we slept?" Sonic asked wearily, no longer freaking out.

"Not long. Five hours?"

"That's too much. We have to reach Elva's place! That was our original destination!"

"But…"

"I know, it's too soon after your head injury, but I don't know what's happened to Shadow and I have a feeling something bad is about to happen. We have to get him back!"

"But…"

"It'll be okay! I promise!"

"But… how will we get there? We have no plan!"

Hockweed must have overheard them. He came in to see them from another chamber in the warren. The sections of warren were guarded only by thin sheets of woven reed or fabric curtains. "I can take you there. You both look light enough to bear on our backs. But I warn you, we won't have a warm welcome. We've been fighting the arbiters for years, and today, with your help, we'll make a stand. Today."

"Is that really necessary?" Sonic asked.

"Yes. If you had seen the things we have seen, you wouldn't hesitate to do what's right."

"I guess so. The Arbiters have always been crazy. And Elva… well, I don't really know yet. But she is spawn to Robotnik. And she has a lot of chaos emeralds."

"Sonic, what's that on your stomach?" Tails asked suddenly. Sonic had a quick look to see that a discolored blemish had surfaced on his tummy during their sleep.

"It's just a bruise." He said. "What? You landed on me!"

Tails looked on apologetically.

"Come on then, Hockweed." Sonic approached the much larger hedgehog hybrid. "Gather your buddies up and let's do this!"

I will not take anyone else's advice from now on. He thought. If Shadow's with her, I've got to convince him to untie his bonds with her as soon as I can. But I will not listen to Shadow.

But what if… he doesn't listen to me either?

**TBC**


	13. Shadow's Reason

**Chapter 13: Shadow's Reason**

_xxx_

_'I can't save your life_

_Though nothing I bleed for is more tormenting_

_I'm losing my mind and you just stand_

_There and stare as my world divides.'_

_Snow White Queen - Evanescence_

_xxx_

He never could plan as well as a forerunner. Those 'humans' always had a way with plots.

Devices.

Strategies.

No wonder the dragons struggled in the wars of old.

Animals didn't plan. It wasn't in their nature to devise evil and outwit another in such elaborate ways and schemes. The fox could trick a rabbit. But not so far as to conquer the species in a day. And the rabbit could trick a fox right back.

"What are we going to do once we get to this 'Eolith?'" Tails asked bemusedly. "We are both spent. This Elva may not want our company. Hockweed wants her Arbiters wiped out. Sonic, are you listening? And we have no power rings!"

They were sitting tall on the backs of the hoolars. Their gait was cumbersome and a little uncomfortable, but as they progressed they got used to the unique way of travelling. Hockweed's clan had crossed ten leagues in almost two hours. A little more, a little further, and they'd be sprawled on Elva's doorstop without an invitation. And Tails was now growing concerned over Sonic's sanity. He looked haunted. Upset. He tried to smile when he saw Tails prying, but it was a passing attempt.

"Okay…! Okay…! She's one forerunner. Young. Sharp minded I'm guessing. But young. Inexperienced. She has allies - but Robotnik never fought alone either - he had Snively…"

_Before he ate him._

"He had legions of androids…"

_She has Shadow…_

"I'll convince Shadow. He can't be that stupid to run with a forerunner pack."

_Wanna bet?_

"One fort. Robotnik had hundreds. I know exactly where she'll be! It'll be a piece of cake!"

"What about Sally?" Tails asked.

His question hurt. Sonic cursed himself for having not spent more time with her. He had always been like that. Never had time for things. And when he did, he carelessly tossed his duties aside and molted off any responsibly faster than his fur could.

"Best to not let her worry." Was all he said on the matter, and falsified another smile. "It'll be okay. We'll sort this mess out, I promise."

And so they travelled, no longer speaking as they marveled at the grey morning and its welcoming heat as the sun rose. The forest parted before them, admitting a long, jagged valley full of ravines and spindly crags that eventually led to a bridge and then to Akankto Fort. Eolith. It was barricaded by sheer walls, but that didn't intimidate Sonic. The gate to Eolith was spread open, and they could see the engulfing carnage. It seemed that Hockweed's warriors had already made up their mind and gone on ahead: facing the keep squarely and taking on Elva's Arbiters alone. Sonic tried to see more, for they were still too far away to make out much other than masses of bodies grappling against one another, and the darkness on the grass as blood was ejaculated from orifices and hides. He felt a rage build inside him: a carnal desire to explode down the valley and join in: protect his fellow hoolar brethren, but his own weakness had him trapped, leaving him endorsed to merely spectate.

Eventually he had to look away otherwise he was sure he'd go mad with the grief of inaction. Yet that lasted only so long. Though the wind was slight, as they approached, they could hear the fighting: the yelling and the screaming as animal fight and tore into animal. Battle armour clashed, claws snapped against sword: guns fired upon exposed vulnerability.

It was an all-out war down there.

And inside the wall was a long, towering gun that looked a lot like a power canon. Its ebony muzzle was pointed at the sky. It looked big enough to start a nuclear winter.

"We are doing all we can to breech Elva's defenses and tear her reign apart." Hockweed explained. "For too long have we been hunted and decimated little by little. It is time we took a stand now, while there is still something to defend!" He gave a roar-like cry and bolted forwards, charging down the hillside with many others galloping around him. Sonic and Tails held onto their fur: Sonic on Hockweed and Tails on the back of some black hoolar named Sunleer.

Sonic mentally prayed for Hockweed to get there faster. But when they were crossing the bridge: a bridge made out of dark wood with carvings along it, some of which were splattered with drying blood, Sonic began to regret his decision to join their fight. He wanted nothing better than to protect them but he was no fighter. Not anymore.

Hockweed went straight for the centre of the gates, and threw himself like a bloodthirsty train into the legion of Arbiters. But he did not go down like countless other hoolars. He stood up on two legs and punched, kicked, stabbed and bit his way forward, cracking skulls and breaking limbs as if he was an axe man chopping down trees. Sonic fell off his back pretty early into the fight, but he landed on his feet and dragged Tails off Sunleer's back.

Then there was a scream: a penetrating command that somehow, somehow froze the killing. The hoolars, panting, and with blood dribbling from their paws and teeth, looked around, as did the surprised but sly Arbiters.

"Stop! Stop!" Repeated the dark command. It came from a silky but powerful voice: a voice that held sway over all.

"Wait!" Sonic said, "I know that voice!" He tried to see through the much taller, and muscular bodies for the source of the one giving the commands.

"Sonic!" Shadow threw down a dead Hoolar and raced into the carnage. "I saw you! Leave now before you are hurt!"

The Arbiters, struck with something they didn't understand, waited with growing impatience.

"Stop!" Shadow clamored at them, "And retreat! There are more of us than there are of them! So stop wasting your energy and regroup!" At the angry cut of his voice, the Arbiters obeyed and at once came thrashing back into the front line to maim the attackers of Eolith should they try their onslaught again. This gave the hoolars a breather, but now the Arbiters were a cemented wall of combined force. They leveled their spears and stood ready, leaving their dead from both sides to mark the middle between the factions.

"This is bad." Whispered Tails. "We have to find a way past them and into the base! We have to stop this somehow before they all kill each other!"

"You're telling me." They were standing in blood as it was.

While the two groups faced off, Sonic led Tails slowly through the hoolars who were roaring and growling like primal tigers at their armed and proficient enemies.

At some unseen signal, they all tore at each other again; the two opposing sides clashing together like contrasting tides of water.

Shadow speared a leaping hedgehog with a lance he'd picked up earlier before the powerful beast ploughed into him.

But now his auburn eyes were atrociously set on his old nemesis.

He lifted off his cumbersome chest and thigh armor and dumped them at his feet in a discarded heap.

"Master, what are you doing?" Cried an Arbiter mole.

"You stand guard and don't let any of them touch EOD." He snarled, "I'm going after a crippled hedgehog. I shan't be long. Report to me as soon as I get back."

"Yes, Lord Shadow."

Backed by his hover boots, Shadow raced past EOD in moments and down the Temple entrance and into the metal warren of Eolith. There were no guards standing at the entrances – all were being used to defend against the nefarious hoolars.

Sonic was going to ruin anything. He'd stop him for sure.

Sonic and Tails had slipped on by, unseen, or so they had thought. After bypassing most of the loud, all-consuming conflict, they hurried their way from the gates and into the Temple tunnel. They couldn't go very fast: Tails had a bitch of a headache and they weren't exactly sure where this tunnel led. But Sonic could soon sense the clean, raw energies of the chaos emeralds. It had been a long time since he had felt their pressure dabbing at his pores, felt the call through his skin until it touched his bones. It was power: the unholy paradox, the binding truth, the prerequisite for nearly all sentient beings on Mobius. Perhaps even the universe. For whoever controlled all the emeralds, was a God. Unmatched. Unchallenged. But power also corrupted. Humans didn't do well with power. It turned them mad, made them crave even more power. And so they were helpless, helpless even though they had all the power in the world.

"Elva has all seven emeralds." Sonic whispered as they tried to walk quickly down the tunnel. But the tunnel seemed to stretch on and on.

"What? So soon! What will she do with…"

"SONIC!"

Both of them stopped dead and turned round.

The dark hedgehog, a shadowy menace of tall, brutal power and chaos energy, walked towards him, both fists clenched: teeth a pearly white in the shine of the artificial lights above them. Shadow looked like an invincible demon in the worst of nightmares.

He stopped within ten paces of them and growled darkly. "You've come to destroy what we're doing, haven't you?" He said simply, but he eyes said more.

"You look very murderous today, Shadow." Sonic said without fear or hesitation even though he was literally looking death in the face. "Good to see you're putting your new friends into good use by slaughtering those poor animals out there!" Now he was yelling. "You need to stop this! You and your halery kind go no further! And if you won't stop this, then I will!"

"It's you who doesn't understand, Sonic! You never have! You or your kind will never change either. Queen Elva is right; you will always fight the way of the Arbiters: the way of a better future for all of Mobius!"

Sonic wasn't quite sure if he should laugh or stare at his old rival. Tails stood looking gormless and a little out of place. "What did she do?" He finally asked, "Make you a King or something?"

"Stop with the jokes!"

Sonic's thin smile vanished and his eyes darkened. "Shadow, I know you may like her, and I don't exactly know what lies she's been feeding you with, but I think she's brainwashed you, pal."

"They are not lies!"

Sonic crossed his arms against his svelte chest, hiding the comely mark of Panacea. "And what about that gun you're keeping out there huh? Huge isn't it? What's this forerunner of yours going to do with it? Use it for recycling material to help the planet? I think not!"

For he hadn't been blind to the massive gun they had seen on the way to the gate.

"EOD is our savior! Elva planned it perfectly!" He snarled. "When the countdown is up, it'll discharge draconia all across Mobius and put an end to diseases and misery!"

Sonic's sedated, yet grim countenance turned into a sharp frown. "EOD? That's the weapon? What does it stand for?"

"I don't - it doesn't matter!" He spat, "Elva cares about us! And all animals! She'll fix things! The hedgehogs we're fighting don't believe! But they will!"

"That gun is set to destroy this world, Shades. Not Mobius. But us. Knuckles told me draconia has - always has a chance to kill. And if she has reversed it, that's exactly what she'll do, spread disease, and kill all those healthy. Then the planet will be hers without any threats. And she can rule over maggots. Does that sound good to you?"

"You're just making it all up!"

"Shadow… look: I know we're both trying to get over what happened with Panacea, and you're still mourning over Maria but you mustn't listen to Elva! How can anyone understand draconia, really? She's up to something Shadow, and it isn't helping us animals! If she were, then why is there death and bloodshed outside her very walls? Well?"

Shadow reached into his battle vest pocket and drew out something that looked a lot like a glowing bracelet or a necklace. It was so bright that it shone deeply into Shadow's eyes like a light bulb. And it was slightly bluish with a luminescent sparkle. Without question he threw it at Sonic who caught it on reflex.

"What the…?"

"That's concentrated draconia in there. Elva gave it to me as a keepsake. As you can see, it can be used, transported, distributed. And this is what she's going to heal the planet with. You were given that gift. Let others have the same chance." Sonic gave it a long look, then was about to toss it back when Shadow shook his head. "You keep it. For luck."

Sonic smiled wanly. "I'm not going to change my mind Shades. So what if she has this stuff? Do you know where this comes from? Dragons. And if she has enough to cover the world in a net of magical goodness, then she must have murdered a henhouse of dragons! You're smart Shadow! You know she's done this! Yet you play the part ignorantly! Listen to me! Forerunners are evil! We animals and them can and never should co-exist!"

Suddenly there was a weight to his mind: a paralyzing sense of doom and invasion. Black fingers seemed to snaggle their way through his private thoughts like a deep-boned fever. He had felt this before, a few times, this feeling.

When words spoke directly into his mind, he knew exactly who it was.

_"And what is evil, Sonic? Let me tell you evil. Evil is thoughtless. Evil is hard and cruel. Elva is none of those things. I've seen Evil, Sonic. I know evil. I saw it when Maria got shot. I saw it when I was ejected from the Ark, left to stare and fathom men and their brutality. But Elva wants peace! She wants to stop evil!"_

_"You think it's alright, invading me? Isn't that evil?" _Sonic rebounded back, not even realizing his new ability to reply.

Tails was looking between them, evidently looking bewildered as the private conversation went on mentally between the two hedgehogs.

_"I could kill you just by thinking it."_ Shadow warned, his eyes silently reinforcing the threat. But it was an empty threat. And Sonic knew it. Shadow wouldn't dare touch him. The excursion in winter was too painful, their bond having cemented deeper .

"Then do it."

Sonic sprung first, and launched a downward kick at Shadow who easily read his move and dodged aside before ejecting a glistening, golden shard of chaos. It struck the far wall above Sonic's head and burst into a hot shower of sparks and smoke.

Sonic smacked into him bodily - which wasn't so wise - and tried to push him into the wall. Far stronger, Shadow knocked him back and snapped his legs down with a counter kick. Sonic fell, but rolled out the way just before his enemy hit where his head had been with a flashing elbow of chaos energy. It left a dent in the metal floor.

"Stop! Stop it!" Tails shouted, stepping out of the way before he got mixed up in with the brawl. "We're not supposed to be fighting! Elva has the chaos emeralds! We have to take them before EOD goes off!"

The draconia bracelet skidded across the metallic floor and rested near his boot. Tails bent down and picked it up. The two hedgehogs weren't really fighting to the death. Shadow was holding everything back. He didn't want to hurt Sonic, only to exhaust him. Push him. Then make him leave.

Sonic however knew this. The invasion into his thoughts worked both ways, and Shadow had left himself open to a little intrusion of his own. He could read Shadow's feelings, and his thoughts, and he knew Shadow's plan. He also knew all about EOD this way.

EOD was the gun atop the tower, the gun that would go off when the countdown hit zero, and cover the world in 'draconia.' He had to stop it. But getting past Shadow was going to be tricky.

Sonic flipped himself back up after being kicked to the floor and grabbed onto Shadow's back, ripping off his helmet and armor plating units.

Shadow whipped round like something cold and programmed, and smashed a fist into Sonic's side. The blue hedgehog staggered, one knee hitting the floor. It wasn't injury that was exhausting him. It was his own bad health.

And Shadow's mental invasion wore his down greatly. The pressure of the maintained telepathic link made his concentration fuzzy, made his moves feel more sluggish than normal. He tried to fight Shadow's touch, tried to rid it out of his head. But Shadow knew corridors in his mind that he had no sense of, and he was able to evade or at least resist Sonic's struggle. But there was something ingrained within Shadow's memory banks – something valuable. It was a truth Sonic wanted, a truth that unlocked his true reason behind his choice to join Elva, but it was blocked against his attempts to look in.

"Shades, don't you get it? Forerunners always want everything for the better good. But they go the wrong way about it. They didn't see everyone else. Just themselves. They saw a world - just for themselves. We animals never got a say in anything - even if the world to begin with was ours. But the planet belongs to nobody, right? It's here and we are here! That's all there is to it! We have to live as we are! And not cause pain and suffering to anyone!"

Shadow stopped his march towards him, but his pressure behind the link was still maintained. It was beginning to give Sonic a whooping headache.

Tails, holding the bracelet to him, worry etched on his face, watched them with wide, glassy eyes. Their silence was really bothering him.

_"I have to do what's right!"_ Shadow mentally proclaimed. "_I worked hard to earn title of 'hero!' Protector! Warrior! Keeper! I saved you! Don't you have any appreciation?"_

_"You know I do!"_

_"Then listen to me!"_ He let his arms dangle readily at his sides._ "Ever since you've been born, Sonic, you've suffered every single war or calamity going. It has never stopped. First the dragons and us, then the dragons and the forerunners. Us and Robotnik. You finished him. That was the beginnings of change. Of rebirth. Maybe Robotnik had never finished designing Elva properly. Have you ever thought about that? He made her human. Gave her basic desires and fears. But what if he never finished? What if he failed to instill in her the common hatred? The evil that birthed him!"_

Sonic grinded his teeth together. Shadow's expression kneaded into violent asperity and anger. His black ears were bent low on his head like he was bursting with aggression.

_"No."_ Sonic thought clearly so that Shadow could pick up on it._ "No. He had her finished."_

_"What makes you think that?"_

Sonic rose from the floor and stood brokenly, but he had to place his hand on the wall to stop himself from sliding back down. His words, hoarse and emotional, broke through his lips so that Tails could hear as well.

"Robotnik sent word to Outcast to find us. To find me, and so we captured him and we found the location of his fort, thus initiating the cycle. You remember. I'm fed up with your lies. He planned it all. He wanted me dead as much as I wanted him gone. But he knew he could die and so he left his plans behind, and set Elva up to take his place if the worst should happen. You knew him Shadow. He planned everything. It was like he was insuring himself and his reign. Insuring himself within her."

Shadow stood there like a cold, iron statue. His steel affront and common ignorance got Sonic angry more times than he was loath to admit. Then a few kinks in the chain started to loosen and Shadow allowed himself to relax. His iron mettle and appearance softened and a light of clarity shone in those lucid, devilish eyes of his.

"Take my advice, Sonic, and join her. She'll look after you - the planet - your people. Like you said, the planet belongs to no one. She is young. She needs a teacher. She needs you and me. And this dragon blood," He pointed to the bracelet Tails was now holding, "Your infection - what made you sick and caused your heart failure - I read some of Elva's documents - she knows and I know that the draconia holds the condition. And upon a recurrent touch, the spell simply discharges and your condition will come back. You'd live for perhaps a matter of minutes. Depending on your condition before Panacea 'healed' you."

"Shades, I fought a monster yesterday. It wasn't robot – it wasn't flesh and blood. It was earth and root and stone, and it carried draconia as its weapon! And it went after me and Tails!"

Tails nodded quickly to confirm this.

"If it wasn't for Hockweed of the Hoolars, I would be dead! She's duping you, Shadow! It wasn't Robotnik's technology, it was something else, she's experimenting! And she knows that as soon as I get hit with draconia again: I'm finished!"

"Don't be daft! Why would she be so afraid of a crippled hedgehog whom I love?" Shadow's open and honest confession baffled Sonic a little. "Look, the Arbiters aren't going away anytime soon, and Elva has all seven chaos emeralds. Now give it a rest and let me handle things. Your time is over. Mine is just beginning."

Sonic tried to pull together the strands of dignity he had left and searched in his red eyes for any sign of understanding: of truth. "I can't believe this! That - that you'd join Elva? What if you're wrong? What if you plant and sow our doom?"

"I'm sorry, Sonic, but we have to join her! With us by her side, Mobius will be at peace!"

"That isn't why you're joining her, is it? I saw something in here while we were communicating." He pointed at his head. "What was it? Stop lying to me! Why have you really joined her?"

Shadow gave him a tired, defeated look all of a sudden, and his severity died away, leaving behind a very somnolent hedgehog. "You really want to know why I joined her?"

Sonic nodded. "Don't I deserve that much? If you truly think so much about me?"

Shadow looked down, as if considering the consequences. Then his eyes locked on to his comrade. "My reason is purely selfish. And so it is a corrupted choice. But I still stand firmly by it as I know you would for a dear friend. I stand by Elva because of you."

Sonic did a double take. "What? What what? Did I hear that correctly? You go to all this bloodshed, all this reclusive behavior and mutiny because of little old me?"

Shadow nodded, unashamed. "Yes."

Tails looked just as daunted, just as shocked.

"Good Dowa, why?"

Shadow gave a long sigh. "Maria was dying because she was sick with a disease that couldn't be cured, and you're going the same way."

"Panacea healed me, Shades! Look at me, I'm fine!"

Shadow shook his head. "You're under a spell. A spell that will fade in time. Elva knows a lot more, and she has technology. She may find a way of really fixing you. And she has all seven emeralds. They'll unlock the secret. Either that or my DNA."

Sonic felt ill. "You're killing my friends out there, to save me? How could you! I'd rather die a thousand times than even let one of them perish out there!"

"It hurts now, but when they see the truth of Elva's vision, they'll understand. And so will you."

Shadow began to advance, body stiff and hardened again as he prepared himself.

Tails went to step forwards but Sonic held out a hand. "No, Tails! Don't get in the way! I don't want to see you get hurt as well."

"But Sonic!"

Sonic waited for the contact as Shadow plodded towards him, hands clawed open, eyes flat and as bitter as winter.

Sonic concentrated on his anger and felt a similar power he had felt back in the forest take slow, stubborn hold. His friends were dying, and for what? For WHAT?

Shadow was going mad with grief. He couldn't really blame him. What would Sonic have done in his situation when it was for a friend? But this was the wrong way about it. And Shadow was too blind to see it.

Panacea – the winter – the blood and agony, it had hurt Knuckles and Shadow more than he had realized. He had thought that the personal nightmare had been his to lay claim to.

And he had been very wrong.

Just as Shadow was about to collide, Sonic lashed out with his anger, and a flash of white wind shrieked and wailed, lashing at Shadow like a blizzard. Taken more by surprise than hurt, Shadow was flung back. The whiteness continued to scream and descend upon him like sharp, solid snow.

"The hell?" He flew his arms up to protect his face. Sonic's star peeled out like heavenly light in the midst of the snow storm. That's when he knew. It was the star! He could command the dragon energy inside of him with unthinkable or accidental talent. How he had utilized it Shadow had no idea. But harnessing said energy into an almost harmless, yet confusing wind did nothing but anger him. Shadow launched himself into the spray of white wind and smashed his fist into Sonic's ribs, ending the cutting hurricane.

Sonic seemed just as shocked by his own attack if not terrified, and tears were flowing from his eyes.

Shadow didn't have time for it. He hit Sonic to one side as if he was just a soft doll. But the blue hedgehog seemed to have harnessed some bitter energy from a power he neither liked nor comprehended. Shadow, having lost his guard, got punched in the face and then slapped down against the floor. Sonic curled into his spin and threw himself at the darker animal with strength he didn't know he had. Shadow, startled, went to run. Sonic caught him in the back and Shadow fell low to dodge but the blue quills cut along his spine.

Sonic whizzed over him and then under in a wonderful, colourful blue arch of wind and snapped Shadow back against the corridor wall. He banged his head hard.

Sonic uncurled from his protective ball of spines and knelt before Shadow, panting. "Shades, Shades, are you okay?"

"I will be…" He fell on him. Tore at anything his teeth could find. Sonic struggled desperately. Shadow could feel his every muscle bunch and flex to get away. But Shadow was so much stronger. He pinned him down easily and slashed and bit into his flesh like a hungry panther.

Sonic was being slowly forced down to his knees. Painfully. Inch by inch. Shadow was clearly the stronger: like a train with no carriages to hold him back, a thirsty engine always on the go, looking for new outlets. His scarlet quills of angry red lurched out from his black spines as if they were glossy with spilled blood. His teeth grinned out from his lips in wolfish disdain.

"Shades! Stop this! She's duping you!" Sonic cried, trying to reason with him. He could see Shadow's eyes look at the star occasionally, as if he was taking offense to that as well. The star was witchcraft after all. It wasn't science. It was something unexplainable. Unattainable And unknown. And Shadow hated the unknown. The unknown was what got Maria killed, what made humans mad. It was what took away hope and love. It was also a false star: a star that offered relief like a painkiller, yet it didn't actually arrest the condition.

"I will stop, when you stop, Sonic the hedgehog!" He barked roughly, his eyes staring down at him. "In a world where there is no strife, war or hatred, there is no need for dumb foolish creatures like you! I get it; you want this. You want conflict. You wish to pillage the world with some kind of danger to thrill yourself with, and I won't have it anymore! I am the hero now. I stop villains like you! Let me cure you! Let me win this! Then we'll forget this little debacle of ours!"

Sonic pushed upwards, star flashing. However it was like grinding against untiring machinery. And Shadow simply shoved him back down again. The muscles all along Sonic's spine and legs burned hotly. There was no way past him. And they both knew it.

"Shadow, don't become the monster she wanted you to be! You saved me! You did! Look at me! I'm alive because of you and Knux!"

Shadow motioned forwards, a true, nefarious predator. His left fist eased away from Sonic's hand and instead wrested his fingers in blue fur, lifting Sonic up from the floor. The tips of his red sneakers scuffed at the ground, trying to find purchase that wasn't there. Shadow's eyes grinned, even when his lips remained straight and sour.

"How does it feel to be the bad guy for once? Not fun is it? This is what happens when saviors get too wrapped up in themselves. Think they're mighty. Golden. Like angels."

"You seriously need therapy." Sonic spoke despite the snare of Shadow's hold. And he was right. Shadow did. He did. Knuckles too. They all needed damn therapy, and Elva was attacking them at their weakest.

"I don't want to kill you. I never will, I just have to disable you until she's made the world hers. Or… you can surrender. Bow to her and it'll all be over. Peace for everyone and everything. Then you'll be well again. Like you were before!"

He tried to gaze down at Shadow as sweat poured down his fur. Unfelt tears left traces on his soft cheeks.

Ah yes, a time before… when they had all been strong and healthy.

Then Outcast the weasel had shown up, and the cogs of Robotnik's machine had been put into motion.

"Believe on me, Shades! Please! When have I ever let you down!"

"When you went to that LAKE!" Shadow screamed into his face. "You let me down! You let us all down! I hated you for that you know! You just upped and walked away, right out of that tent as if me and Knuckles didn't mean anything to you! We slaved day and night to keep that heart of yours going! And then you went and BETRAYED us!"

Sonic shut his eyes. Oh Dowa, he did to that, didn't he?

"You know what it's like to suffer nightmares every time I close my eyes?" Shadow spat. "Well I do! I don't even dare touch you sometimes because it sounds like you're dying! I want this gone! All of it! I want you back to normal, and I want Mobius to be at peace! Is that too much to ask? IS IT?"

Because Sonic had nothing else better to say, all he could come up with was a useless: "Sorry."

Shadow released him, and watched him drop to the floor. Tails rushed over and pulled Sonic into a tearful embrace.

Shadow gave them both dirty looks. Then he was gone, running back to Elva or the EOD, it was hard to tell.

_'And then you went and betrayed us!'_

_'betrayed us'_

_'betrayed'_


End file.
